Nao Katafuchi is an old acquaintance of AVO, he performed in The Netherlands during one of the shows organised by yours truly in 2013. In the meantime, Nao moved out of New York, where he lived since the early ’90s, went to Europe and performs in the continent from time to time. In 2015, he released the album Émergence on Nadanna, a sister label of Germany’s Anna Logue Records. The Lonely Kind is one of the tracks on this album.
Émergence is Nao Katafuchi’s debut full-length album. It features contributions from Liz Wendelbo (Xeno and Oaklander), and the shiny stars of Japanese electropop and minimal synth/wave Tomo Akikawabaya, Tona Ohama and Kevin Komoda (Rational Youth). With a guitar and a synth box, Nao creates his own world of cold romantic wave. Other genres that can be placed on Nao Katafuchi’s music is synth pop and synth wave.
The footage used for the music video of the song The Lonely Kind comes from Rebus-Film Nr. 1 from Paul Leni, a silent black and white film made in 1925. Nao Katafuchi uses this footage during his performances and decided to use it for the video as well to put out the song.
It is interesting to put music behind a film that has no sound at all, but also no colour. Although the film already carries a certain dark atmosphere, the music of Nao Katafuchi makes it somewhat softer, boosted by the dreamy voice of Nao. It takes you on a dreamy and pleasant flight that seems neverending, because of the repetition of the refrain, but eventually ends up which is a shame as this is a lovely song that doesn’t have to end at all. The Lonely Kind doesn’t contain fuss and hoo-ha and is a pretty song of itself with the minimalistic addition of instruments.
You can buy Émergence digitally through BandCamp, but it is also available as vinyl.
Rating: 70/100
