CVN

CVN is one of the aliases of Tokyo-based musician Nobuyuki Sakuma, also known for being one half of dreamy Japanese synth duo Jesse Ruins and for his other project – Cold Name. CVN is a natural extension of Nobuyuki’s previous endeavours and his genre-bending compositions contain breezy emotional textures that are both nostalgic and futuristically cold. They reveal the intense and fractured, lonesome nature of our contemporary urban world. CVN’s music encompasses elements of glitch, playful noise, industrial collages as well as post-internet sensibilities or IDMish melancholy. Every single CVN release develops unique conceptual and sonic narratives: a soundtrack for the chaotic and technogenic nature of Tokyo (Concrete Virus Nu released on Baba Vanga), emotional palettes of sci-fi dystopias (Exposure on Where To Now?) or the patient charming soundscapes of Unknown Nerves (Flamebait). Also, there is no wonder that occasionally we might notice elements of the neon haziness of Jesse Ruins or the murky and noir synthwave of Cold Name popping up in the sound of CVN.

In the records

STM 217 reflects many of the abovementioned aspects of Nobuyuki’s work. In this selection he guides us through music made by experimental tape artists, Bandcamp treasures and obscure jewels from the Japanese underground. It is worth noting that a number of tracks were created exclusively for this mix by Japanese artists close to CVN (tracks titled “for CVN”), and the selection also contains as yet unreleased CVN material. It is hard to pin down the mood of this collage as it bustles with glossy cosmopolitan madness and seems like a postcard from an ever-evolving megalopolis. It creates a feeling similar to that of a night-drive in a metropolitan suburbia, where images rapidly change each other in the same vein as these tracks do. The sweetly haunted melancholia of ALMA’s “I’m A Lonely Housewife”, the cloudy trap of Bedwetter (aka Lil Ugly Mane), Why Be’s tropical rework of Croatian Amor’s “Love Means Taking Action”, the deconstructed and drugged version of Rihanna’s “Needed Me” (edited by CVN) captures the contrasts between real and artificial, plastic and heartfelt, which are becoming a sign of the times. The mix drifts between darkness, glossy city lights, cold balearic twists and deconstructed soundscapes. It could be expressed through David Smith’s minimalist and abstract sculpture, “Blue Construction”. In the same way as the selection, it balances between suspended motion, dynamism and elegance in movement.