bonjour melancholy☔
Leftfield/Outsider house from Osaka, for late hours and headphones.
Debut EP: "next time, maybe", out September 19, 2025
About
“Stasis in darkness”
Based in Osaka, Japan, bonjour melancholy☔ crafts intimate deep house woven from solitude, lo-fi textures, and live hardware recordings. Created entirely through headphones with Ableton Move, Roland P-6, Op-Z, and SP-404mkII, his music unfolds in quiet, in-between moments, on trains, in cafés, during breaks at work.His debut EP "next time, maybe" (out Sept 19, 2025) explores the blurry frontier between dub techno atmospheres and emotional minimalism. Recorded live with no overdubs and minimal editing, these six tracks (+3 bonus cuts) embrace imperfection, solitude, and memory, echoing artists like Huerco S., Loidis, Terekke, Luomo.The EP is currently private. Press and collaborators interested in preview copies can reach out via email.
ABOUT
"next time, maybe"
Recorded between May and July 2025 using headphones, live gear, and fleeting pockets of time, "next time, maybe" is a debut EP of leftfield/outsider, minimal house shaped by absence, emotional delays, and the quiet hours no one sees.All tracks were recorded live. With mistakes, no edits. The textures were left raw. Because honesty matters more than perfection.The EP opens with “drifting you (original mix)”, a softer reconstruction of an unreleased idea, and closes with “ashes of time (no time ver.)”, a condensed fragment for those who can’t spare ten minutes. This same track appears three times — in mono, in stereo, and in a shorter form — like memory itself: refracted, unstable, never quite the same twice.“call memories” was originally titled “call B.”, in homage to Brian Leeds (Loidis, Huerco S), but was renamed to better fit the emotional arc of the release."next time, maybe" is not perfect. Just like any of us.
Interview
"I long for love — for connection. Through music, I’m just trying to reach someone. Even one person."
Why do you make music like this? So melancholic, so personal?I'm a lonely person. I have friends, family, but I've never had anyone to share this obsession with — music. I guess that shows.
I think Wong Kar-wai is a big influence on me. Same with Sylvia Plath’s poetry, or the melancholy in Oscar Wilde. It all seeps into the sound, whether I want it or not.What role does Osaka play in your music?Places like Compufunk or Circus host all kinds of sounds. But what actually influences me more is Loser — a small hip-hop shop where I get gear. I also work a lot with the SP-404, so there's a connection there.Your album is called "longing". What are you longing for?
I long for love — like everyone does, I think. A real, deep connection. In this case, I'm trying to find it through music.
Maybe I’ll connect with someone. Even just one person. That’s enough.Where do you make your music? Do you have a studio?Not at all. All my music is made on headphones. Half of it on the train, the other half during lunch breaks at work.
I don’t have a studio. I don’t even have my own place — I live in someone else’s apartment.
So yeah… this is music for headphones. It’s intimate, it’s personal.What influences your sound?
I listen to a lot of music, and I used to be part of the indie pop, and then the northern soul scene. From there I’ve taken that rhythmic pulse, those jazz chords hidden in something that feels almost pop.
But I also love Loidis — that floating, mystical sound. And Basic Channel, of course. That minimalist approach shapes everything I do.What do you avoid when making tracks?
I try to avoid perfection. I don’t want to sound clean. I don't want to sound "perfect": I don't want anyone to say "This is the perfect example of a deep/minimal/dub house track.
My approach is messy, with hardware synths, and I always record live. You can hear the mistakes — I leave them in on purpose.When do you know a track is finished?
I don’t. I just stop playing it and start something else.
In a way, all my tracks are just fragments of the same song.What should people know when they listen to your music for the first time?
That I’m just a beginner guided by passion.
Please forgive the rough edges. I’m grateful for every single listen.What’s hidden in your music that people might not realize?
That even if it sounds amateur or messy — made in fragments stolen between being a full-time father and worker — there are hours and hours of loops behind every second.