Ethereal Sounds of Emotion:
The Lush, Mysterious Music of
Tomonari Nozaki
BY JUSTIN FAERMAN
image: tomonari nozaki/elementperspective
There’s not much information to be found about artist Tomonari Nozaki, the enigmatic and mysterious Japanese musician behind Soleil. But one need not look far for clues as the music he makes speaks volumes about his inspiration. According to the fragments of Nozaki’s hyper-minimalist
biography you can find spattered across a handful of equally soft-spoken websites that have some sort of loose connection to his work, his music occupies the space between “liminality” and “the sublime”, which is about as accurate of a description as I’ve ever heard.But it’s pretty clear what’s going on here: Nozaki wants it to be about the music, not the musician. He’s not in this for fame. He’s in this to share his beautiful slice of reality with the world. And clearly, we have much to learn from the depth of experience of this man.
Nozaki’s music is intensely lush and emotional—listening to it you can’t help but be lulled into some sort of lucid daydream that floats you off into distant worlds, evoking primal feelings of peace, joy, and love. That’s a big statement, I know, but I really can’t think of anything that more accurately describes the beauty of this music. The subtly evolving ambient textures are an acquired taste, but only because they’re so starkly different to the vast majority of formulaic music we hear in our day to day lives.
This is part of the beauty of Nozaki’s work. It’s incredibly and undeniably unique in the most gorgeous way. It is literally feeling translated into sound and, as far as I’m concerned, that is the mark of a musical genius. Sure, there is a cerebrally appealing quality to most music, but let’s be honest, we listen to it because of the way it makes us feel. And in that sense, Nozaki is a master composer. Mysterious, silent, sublime.
Learn More
unknownjp.com
elementperspective.com
Listen to Soleil by Tomonari Nozaki
Download the Album Soleil
Bandcamp: Soleil
About The Author
Justin Faerman is the Co-founder of Conscious Lifestyle Magazine.
