A tribute to
Naoki Kenji,
I`ve considered him as one of the finest composers in this genre. Here`s something that i have compiled for our listening pleasure.
Enjoy.
NOAKI KENJI (
BIOGRAPHY)
Half
German, half
Japanese, Naoki spent his early years in
Tokyo and
Osaka. It is customary in the
Land of the Rising Sun to push children at a tender age, which meant that by the age of five he was already taking classical piano lessons and penning his first compositions.
By the time he was 13, in
1982, his parents sent him to boarding school in
Germany to improve his educationFar from his homeland, Naoki discovered the electric guitar and became a member of the school band.
The band’s concerts proved a washout, but his first gig convinced Naoki that music would determine his life. As he turned 18 he left school without his parents consent to dedicate himself to his dream. And his interest in electronic music began to grow under the influence of
Japanese culture: he felt no less inspired by
Helden Szene than by
Yellow Magic Orchestra and
Ryuichi Sakamoto.
With his first
album Tozai from
1999 he already landed a US release, such as few
European artists manage. This was followed by further discs in
Japan,
Europe and the
USA on labels like Sony or
Universal/US. In
2000 Naoki released the album
Shogun on
Neuton under the pseudonym “JP
Juice”, followed in
2001 by the album
Electric Bolero on
ICM by his project “
Planet Lounge” - a style mix of jazz, world percussion and electronics created together with
Christoph Spendel and
Hakim Ludin.
Steadily the visual component has gained increasing importance for his productions. From gifted producer Kenji has moved on to become a go-getting video artist, as highlighted by his contributions to the cult
TV series “Flowmotion”. In
2002 his album Denshi Ongaku was published by Elektrolux for the first time simultaneously as a CD and a
DVD, a milestone for the renowned downbeat label. The album Ecoustic (Elektrolux) followed on in
Spring 2004 with a small concert tour.
The CD and DVD Fukai (under the moniker JP Juice) and the video
Leben for the band “
Schiller” in
2003 on Universal gained Naoki Kenji lasting respect in the scene as a video artist and director. With his series “
Man vs. Machine”, the club-oriented version of his established “Flowmotion” format, Naoki together with Tomio Tremmel (The
Sushi Club) were given their own
TV programme by
Hessischer Rundfunk in 2004.
Parallel to this Fukai
Remixed was released on
Blue Flame, featuring remixes by famed producers such as
Gabriel le Mar,
Pascal Feos,
Andreas Kauffelt and Lemongrass. Acclaimed chill-out compilations such as
Cafe del Mar or Erotic Lounge have licensed numerous of his tracks.
Doubtless the high
point to date in Naoki’s visual-musical output has been the music documentary
Brahmand. During the two years in which he shot the film between 2002 and 2004, he travelled to such counties as
Laos,
Thailand,
Burma,
Namibia and
India. Impressed by the enormous diversity of this planet, he has created in a kind of one-man-show a film without words, in which not only positive but also negative visual impressions and experiences are captured on celluloid. In spring
2005 he and his partner of many years, Tomio
Tremel, founded their own label and music publishing house, 4mpo, which aims at presenting a safe platform for their projects even when times get hard. After the Planet Lounge album Nazim and other pearls of the lounge genre, further sounds are planned for the label in the coming years, including the album
Versatile, Naoki’s latest long player.
Naoki Kenji feels music is a way of conveying his inner feelings, is a mirror of his soul. He is not one of those musicians who enjoys sitting in bars or partying till dawn. His creative work is so fulfilling that he has no need of any other leisure pursuits. For this he draws intuitively on his outstanding abilities as composer and producer, doing things “in one go”, rather than working for weeks on end toying with one short sequence.
Whatever Naoki Kenjii is doing at the moment, whether music, film, video or remix, his work is always distinguished by the high demands he places on himself and by great technical perfectionism - and with that he serves up time and again true delicacies that delight even the most jaded eyes and ears.
- published: 21 Dec 2014
- views: 2732