Haruka Nakamura, (stylized haruka nakamura) is a Japanese composer, producer, pianist, and guitarist who lives in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. Across his music career, Nakamura has worked with the likes of

Nujabes , born , better known by his stage name Nujabes (; ), was a Japanese record producer, audio engineer, DJ, composer and arranger best known for his atmospheric instrumental mixes sampling from Japanese hip hop, hip hop, soul music, soul, and jazz, a ...

Aimer is a J-pop, Japanese pop singer and lyricist signed to Sacra Music and managed by Agehasprings. Her stage name comes from the French verb 'to love'. Aimer uses the name aimerrhythm for lyrics credits. Debuting in 2011, she has released seven ...

, and

Ichiko Aoba is a Japanese folk singer and songwriter. Her main instrument is guitar, with which she composes most of her music. She also plays the piano, clarinet, accordion, and flute. Aoba is known for her acoustic sound and songwriting, which are inspir ...

, among others. Nakamura started his professional music career by uploading music to

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

. He is now signed to the Singaporean label 'KITCHEN. LABEL'. He has composed for brands like

The North Face The North Face is an American outdoor recreation products company. The North Face produces outdoor clothing, footwear, and related equipment. Founded in 1968 to supply climbers, the company's logo draws inspiration from Half Dome, a distinct ...

as well as for television and anime, including '' Hikikomori Sensei'', ''

Trigun Stampede ''Trigun Stampede'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese anime television series which serves as the second and reimagined adaptation of the manga series ''Trigun'' by Yasuhiro Nightow. It is animated by studio Orange and directed by Kenji M ...

'', and the film adaptation of '' Look Back.''

Early life

Nakamura was born in

Aomori Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori (city), Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is border ...

in 1982. While living there, he picked up piano at age 5 and guitar in middle school. He began uploading music to the social media and music sharing platform MySpace in 2006.

Career

Nakamura released his first studio album, ''Grace'', in 2008. Some of Nakamura's compositions could be described as downtempo

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

-inspired jazzy hiphop such as his 2010 appearance on the tribute album '' Modal Soul Classics II'', 2011's posthumous '' Spiritual State'', and his own record, 2013's ''Melodica''. Meanwhile Haruka Nakamura's earliest and newer work has generally stuck to an evergreen sound inspired by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, romantic impressionists, and

post-classical In Human history, world history, post-classical history refers to the period from about 500 CE to 1500 CE, roughly corresponding to the European Middle Ages. The period is characterized by the expansion of civilizations geographically an ...

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

, with tone pictures comprised from layers of delicate guitars, pianos, vocals, and occasional percussion. 2014 marked the start of the haruka nakamura PIANO ENSEMBLE project with ''音楽のある風景'' (lit. Landscape with Music'''), which reappeared alongside the live album ''Hikari'' in 2017. The ensemble was a mixed group including a chorus, several wind and string instruments, and a percussionist, many of which are Nakamura's contemporaries such as CANTUS and AOKI,hayato. The group went on a live concert tour which concluded at

St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo St. Mary's Cathedral (in ) is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tokyo. It is located in the Sekiguchi neighborhood of Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. History The first cathedral of Tokyo was a wooden structure, built in 1899 in the Gothic s ...

. In 2017, Nakamura was credited for arranging and playing piano on "Liberoara" from the ''Ancient Magus' Bride'' soundtrack with

Miu Sakamoto is a Japanese pop singer. She is the daughter of musicians Ryuichi Sakamoto and Akiko Yano. Biography Miu Sakamoto was born to musician parents, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Akiko Yano, in 1980. She grew up listening to Yellow Magic Orchestra and K ...

. In 2021, he worked from a studio called "studio camel house" in Kōfu, Yamanashi Prefecture with collaborators Gen Tanabe and orbe. That same year, he was brought on as the composer for the

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

TV drama '' Hikikomori Sensei.'' 2023 saw Nakamura collaborate with

Salyu , known professionally as is a Japanese singer, produced by Takeshi Kobayashi. She debuted in 2000 as the fictional singer Lily Chou-Chou for the film ''All About Lily Chou-Chou'', and later debuted as a solo artist in 2004. She is best known f ...

for the opening to the 3D TV anime series ''

''. Nakamura also composed the score and theme song for a 2024 anime film adaptation of

Tatsuki Fujimoto Tatsuki (written: 樹, 達樹, 竜樹, 立規 or 辰希) is a unisex Japanese given name. It is also a Japanese surname (written: 立木). Notable people with the name include: Given name *Tatsuki, Japanese director for anime shows such as '' Kemon ...

's one-shot manga '' Look Back.''

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Grace'' (2008) * ''Twilight'' (2010) * ''12 & 1 Song'' (2011) * ''Melodica'' (2013), featuring

Substantial Stanley Robinson, known as Substantial, is an American hip hop recording artist from Prince George's County, Maryland. He now operates out of Virginia. His videos have appeared on MTV, BET and VH1, while his music has made it to the second rou ...

, and

Shing02 , better known by his stage name Shing02, is a Japanese-American rapper, record producer, activist and investor. According to Patrick Neate, his music "has addressed important issues from Japanese ethnicity to sexual exploitation to the education ...

* ''音楽のある風景 (Ongaku no Aru Fuukei'', lit. '''Landscape with Music')'' (2014) * ''Still Life'' (2020) * ''Still Life II'' (2020) * ''Nujabes PRAY Reflections'' (2021),

tribute * ''archē'' (2023)

Collaborative studio albums

* ''Afterglow'' (2007), with Akira Kosemura * ''Meteor'' (流星) (2012), with

* FOLKLORE, with AOKI,hayato ** ''March 16, 2012'' (2015) ** ''Folklore'' (2015) * ''Kanata'' (2019), with baobab * ''Orbe / Orb Feat. Luca'' (2020), with orbe, Luca, and Gen Tanabe * ''the world'' (2020), with LUCA * orbe I (2022), with orbe * melodica (2023), with nica

Live albums

* ''Kanata no tabi (Live at Yokohamam Port Opening Memorial Hall)'' (2020), with baobab * ''unuunu (LIVE PAINTING at kadensya, TOKYO 2018)'' (2022), with mirocomachiko * ''‘光’ / Hikari'' (2017), as the haruka nakamura PIANO ENSEMBLE

Soundtracks

* '' Hikikomori Sensei'' (2021) * ''Hikikomori Sensei'' season 2 (2024)

EPs

* ''聖者の行進'' (2023), with

* ''I'll'' (2018) * ''CURTAIN CALL'' (2016) * ''Atarashi Hikari / 新しき光'' (2021)

Compilations and remasters

* ''stardust album'' (2018) * ''12 & 1 SONG (Remastered LP Edition)'' (2022) * ''spring & fall -Light years- (Remastered Best / THE NORTH FACE Sphere)'' (compilation) (2023) * ''winter & summer -Light years- (Remastered Best / THE NORTH FACE Sphere)'' (compilation) (2023) * ''CASA (remastered version)'' (2023), with Kadan

Brand Partnership Albums

Sphere ** ''Light years (THE NORTH FACE Sphere 2022 S/A)'' (2022) ** ''those days (-Light years II- THE NORTH FACE Sphere A/W)'' (2022) ** ''from dusk to the sun (-Light years III- THE NORTH FACE Sphere M/N)'' (2022) ** ''SUN.Light (-Light years IV- THE NORTH FACE Sphere S/L)'' (2023) * Tsutaya Books ** ''AOIMORI - music for TSUTAYA BOOKS'' (2023) ** ''AOIMORI II - music for TSUTAYA BOOKS'' (2023)

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Japanese male composers Japanese male pianists Musicians from Aomori Prefecture Anime composers Japanese television composers 1982 births Living people