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■Lo-fi producer and multi-instrumentalist Nathan Kawanishi is fresh off the release of his two-part concept album: 2022's Iconoclasm (Thesis) & 2023's Splashes of Ink (Antithesis). For most artists, the idea of making two albums that are polar opposites of each other would be the stuff of nightmares, but for Kawanishi, this was the challenge he was looking for after the breakout success of his Nettwerk Music Group debut LP Nostalgia. A pandemic project that started with reflections of his time in Japan, Nostalgia rocketed Kawanishi from rising producer to an important new voice in lo-fi hip hop. Rather than lean into the shimmering, blissed-out sound he refined on Nostalgia, Kawanishi challenged himself to stretch himself as an artist, to experiment with new sounds and genres. Kawanishi has been a graphic designer for the better part of a decade, so experimenting with new material that better informs his aesthetic feels natural, even essential, to who he is. Now, he returns with a new album, Lucent.

For his new album, Lucent, Kawanishi says, ”This is a collection of densely layered, cinematic and orchestral beats with heavy use of pitched vocal chops. The energy of the album roughly mirrors light and emanation. The cohesive sound and energy more so reflect where I was (physically, environmentally, and mentally) as opposed to any sort of intentionality.”

For focus track ”Lucent”, Kawanishi says, ”This is the title track. After much unnecessary waffling, I figured 'lucent; captured the general feeling of both the song and the album. Possibly contradictory because it's harmonically a little dark but sonically lucent (if you like reading into things).”

For non-focus closing track ”Magnitude”, Kawanishi says, ”Some slightly off-kilter synths with a cool lil drop in the chorus. This was either gonna be the intro or the outro-I figured I'd spring it on people at the end since it goes a bit hard for the lofi crowd.”