Naoki Kenji

German-Japanese sound wizard Naoki Kenji started his career as a keyboard player in Tokyo and Osaka. Deeply influenced by the Japanese culture that surrounded him, his interest for electronic music started to grow. And while it may have been the big electronica heros such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and Riuchi Sakamoto that inspired him back then, Kenji today may look back on his own long-lasting career as producer, composer, DJ and remixer (e.g. for Al Jarreau and Ivan Lins). Countless successful releases in Japan, Europe, and the US on labels such as Sony and Universal/US, give Kenji impressive proof of his career. With "Ecoustic", Naoki Kenji now presents his fifth longplayer. During the first listening of this album, experts of Kenjis music will notice the big step that the extrordinary producer has taken since his last album "Denshi Ongaku". Every single track of "Ecoustic" showcases the great experience that Kenji has gathered over the course of the past years while he has been doing a large number of live gigs, and his songwriting skills have reached a completely new level. The unmistakable motif of this fifth longplayer is his approach to the emotional impact of music, sound, and acoustics. Kenji interprets these terms from an electronic point of view, hence the name of his album: "Ecoustic". Within the first three tracks, he manages to show the enormous spectrum of his musical understanding. Dreamy harmonic textures meet up with organic downtempo grooves, while beautiful strings collide with sounds from outer space. Naoki Kenji is an innovator and electronica genius in the deepest sense of the word, and with his outstanding production skills and songwriting abilities he fuses different styles to form unique emotional and melodious landscapes. “Ecoustic“ is taking a loan from Electronica, Jazz and Soundtrack music to create a breathtaking swinging hybrid beyond the usual styles of modern lounge.