Justin Nozuka

About

With his new album Ulysees, Toronto singer-songwriter Justin Nozuka crafts a world that fully explores the space and vibrancy that resonates within the purity of minimalism. <br> There is a deeply-rooted calmness to Ulysees that echoes like a sustained note held through the 10 tracks of the album— a natural grace tempered with passion that creates an ambiance of delicate space around the music. “To me the songs feel generous and spontaneous,” he explains. “I wanted to create a world with this album, an experience that is unique and unified.” <br> It is a new perspective for Nozuka, who says that finding the heart of Ulysees was a winding process. A marked departure from his previous work, the journey of creating it was a slow transformation and free-flowing experiment of sorts that began in 2011.  <br> Following his debut album Holly, and the follow-up You I Wind Land and Sea, Nozuka took his time to create his third work. “Making this album was really quite a long process, during which some key things happened. I was urged to get into production by a good friend, so I took his advice and decided to learn to produce. I was also able to work together with an aesthete, a friend with whom I created Ulysees,” says Nozuka. <br> The bold move to produce on his own brought a depth and instinct to his music that was previously untapped. While he looks back fondly on his previous work, this evolution in his creative process heralds a departure into new territory that he now relishes.  <br> With the new freedom of working from a home-based studio, and the experimentation of sitting in the producer’s chair for the first time, as Nozuka pursued songs and refined them a specific aesthetic emerged within the music he was writing that would eventually become Ulysees. <br> “Dreaming/Eyes Changing Colour” symbolizes the journey the album takes listeners on, enveloping them in a gentle night. The lead single “Right By You” evokes a languid, sensual feeling while delving further into a unique and soothing dream-like world Nozuka so deftly weaves together through the album. Listeners can almost feel the raw and transformative experience it has been for Nozuka. <br> And so with Ulysees, Nozuka’s artistry is ready to be embraced anew as a cherished pause and an intention for balance in an otherwise frenetic world. <br>