The Steel Grey

 

Nao Katafuchi ‎- Stahlgrau [HERTZ 057 DEU 2019 FLAC]

Nao Katafuchi is an electronic musician who creates his own world of dark romantic wave.

Growing up in the suburb of Tokyo in the 1980's, Nao spent his teenage years on the streets of Shibuya searching for instruments and records, falling in love with electronic music and inhaling everything that the district had to offer. The urban flair of Tokyo, where the growth of hi-tech industry was years ahead from the rest of the world, influenced what would later become his retro-futuristic trademark sound.

In 1991, he relocated to New York City's Lower East Side, where he started working as an audio engineer for recording production companies; picking up a guitar to later form his first electronic rock band, Superfortress, with which he released a couple of self-produced EPs and LPs.

After years of experimenting with different sounds and scenes, Nao finally found a niche of musically kindred spirits at the legendary Wierd Record's parties, where he made his debut as Nao Katafuchi. Deeply involved in the thriving minimal synth scene of the City, together with acts such as Xeno & Oaklander, Martial Canterel, Epee Du Bois and Led Er Est – he eventually met Willie Burns of Brooklyn's WT Records, who released his first record, Yumegoto, in 2012.

In the late 2015 Nao moved his home base to Germany, and released his first full length album Émergence from Nadanna, a sister label of Germany’s Anna Logue Records. There he has settled in the darkwave scene which continues, and deeply grounded around the area of the industrial Ruhrgebiet.

In the autumn of 2019 he released his second full length album Stalhgrau – Steel Grey in German. The album is strongly influenced by his new surroundings, and is expressing his identity. Together with raw, and gritty sound of vintage analog synthesizers, the music itself has become even more moodier with his darker, deeper voice, and whispering. 

01 Tamayura

02 Stahlgrau

03 Resist (Got Suppressed)

04 Red Planets Waltz

05 Exotica

06 Inishie

07 Drown In Colors

08 Last Desire

09 Inhale The Darkness