Between starting her own label, challenging her artistic skills, and staying engaged with fans, KaNa kept herself quite busy over the last year!
When Japan’s music scene comes to mind, one might think of a single driven market – less driven by ownership, and more by artistic fervor. One might think of the broad appeal of lo-fi hip-hop from artists like the late Nujabes or conjure images of frantic dance rhythm games like DDR. Perhaps, it might be the mega-clubs like Womb in Tokyo fixating the mind on nightlife experiences. Yet still, maybe the mind’s eye pictures a forward-thinking world filled with robots and technology before everything else. The truth is – like many developed countries – it lies in the spirit of its people and from the thriving Japanese electronic music scene comes the talents of KaNa.
First gaining broad exposure worldwide as a member of the Otographic Music collective, KaNa’s sound borders on trance and progressive house as a whole. Her heritage of playing the piano as a child, becoming a keyboardist in bands in her teens, and passion for music as a whole cultivates her artistic style. Throughout her musical journey, she’s traversed her roots, be it video games, the 1980’s, soul, euro-beat, or Hi-NRG to inspire her music. In broadening her reach, she entertained on labels like Pineapple Digital and Arrival (a sub-label of the then Silk Music, today Monstercat Silk).
KaNa’s willingness to experiment with her influences simply elevates her sound over the sea of mediocrity. Is it always club-focused? No, but it is focused on art and craftsmanship. Just take on her 2020 challenge – launching her own creative label in Snow Freques. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, KaNa rose the challenge to spread the beauty of her music to the world.
As per the launch of Snow Freques, KaNa blessed fans with two new tracks as part of the ‘M3-2021 Spring’ event in Japan this past May. Now, she’s ready to showcase what makes this Yokohama-based artist soar to musical bliss as we kick off the heat of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
This time I’m focusing on the roots and backbone of my electronic music, and this is truly my home to return to. The mix consists of a total of 20 tracks, 10 from my own work and 10 from Artists and works that I much respect and have been influenced and inspired a lot by throughout my electronic music career. For example, Progressive House, Hard House, 80s Hi-NRG, 90s Garage House, etc. What makes my music unique is that I have reconstructed fragments of that music with new interpretations based on Japanese ideas. I hope everyone enjoys it!
KaNa
Listen to the latest This Is Home mix on SoundCloud below, download or stream “Episode 03” off KaNa’s Snow Freques label, and let us know what you think in the comments!
Stream This Is Home 029 || KaNa [Yokohama] on SoundCloud:
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