Blue Roofs (2022)

NRV 'Blue Roofs'

See Blue Audio: ambient / electronic / beatless / cinematic / downtempo / eclectic / introspective… Shade rather than light...

Following the cinematic ambience of the f5point6 album, ‘A Matter of Light and Depth’, See Blue Audio heads deeper into ambient territory with its next release. It also sees a new addition to the roster as NRV from Japan presents ‘Blue Roofs’, the thirty-ninth release on the label featuring two extended sonic sketches based around everyday life.

NRV is the drone/ambient project from Sendai-based electronic musician Nerve, best known as the producer behind the trip hop, dub and electro-pop band antennasia featuring the captivating vocals of San. Several albums on labels such as Double Life Records and Lemongrassmusic in Germany has propelled antennasia onto the global scene, while there have also been NRV releases on the FOIL imprint from New York and Tabula Rasa Records in San Francisco. Now it’s the turn on See Blue Audio and the artist’s musical philosophy of soft simplicity; finding inspiration in everyday life and locations, which in turn give rise to emotional spaces.

As always in life, there’s a backstory to this project, and it began during the global lockdown of 2020. This period of enforced isolation enabled NRV to take his time in trying out different approaches and musical experiments, which ultimately led to the forging of a new sonic identity. Going back further in time, it’s important to note that Sendai, the capital city of the Miyagi Prefecture, was one of the parts of Japan worst hit by the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. After the earthquake, many houses were covered with blue sheets in place of roofs, and the title is a reference to that. Since then, things have changed rapidly in Japan, but also little by little; even things that look the same as before do not feel the same.

Time can move in strange and mysterious ways, and this is reflected in the musical path of ‘Blue Roofs’. The 20-minute title track is sublimely graceful, a slow-moving beatless river punctuated by fragments of field recordings and microscopic glitches. Changes in the course of this river seem almost imperceptible, and yet we land in a different place, swept along by the ebb and flow of musical currents suffused with a deep emotional energy and tinged with sweet melancholy.

The accompanying track, ‘Sombra’, is a little shorter in length, and complements and contrasts its partner with a more pastoral, optimistic feel. Based on field recordings made on the tree-lined Jozenji-dori Avenue, one of the most iconic places in Sendai, time is replaced by light on this track. On the day when these recordings were made, the contrast between the shadows of the trees and the blue sky above was a thing of rare beauty, a familiar scene but also fleeting.

Time, place, form and movement: all are in constant flux in the musical tapestry of NRV, even if it passes by almost unnoticed. It’s within this world of soft simplicity that beauty can flourish, memories cherished, emotions expressed, and the imagination set free. Sonic sketches of landscapes that are thought of as all too ordinary perhaps, but as ‘Blue Roofs’ immaculately captures, nothing is truly ordinary, and everything has its rightful place in the universe and beyond.

Track Listing

01. Blue Roofs (20'03")

02. Sombra (16'05")

All tracks written, produced and mixed by Manabu Ito.

Photography: Manabu Ito.

Releases October 14, 2022