Nylon Magazine Japan - 2006 March no. 22

コーラル

Caural

炎上ジェットのラッキーboy

“The Lucky Boy Riding The Jetstream”

He's a mysterious kind of person. Normally he's an athletic guy who's really into swimming and similar sports. He's also surprisingly social, and one of his specialties is cooking. But at the same time, he's an experimental electronic musician who builds sound by freely manipulating fragments of sampled audio with a laptop. Isn't that a bit of an unexpected combination?

But maybe that's exactly what makes him interesting. Nothing is one-dimensional, and that's no fun anyway (laughs). Life is an art, too. The key is finding your own balance and enjoying every day.

The music Zachary Mastoon creates as caural certainly has the familiar warmth of what people often call "folktronica." Yet there's also a strong cinematic quality to it. Perhaps that's because he isn't devoted to a single instrument, but instead treats sampling itself as his instrument. By weaving together many different sound fragments into electronic music, he creates rich sonic landscapes that stimulate the imagination like the soundtrack to a film.

"Sampling is like collecting things. While recording sounds, all kinds of audio become raw materials that can later be transformed into entirely new worlds inside my head."

His eyes sparkle as he talks. For Zachary, layering electronic sounds and instruments over rhythms feels almost like a child happily dressing up a doll. That's why his music has such an adorable, playful quality, while also expressing a sense of gentle nostalgia.

"Rather than melancholy, I think my music is the kind that makes people feel happy. There's a phrase, 'happy endings,' right? I actually like music that has a little sadness mixed into it more than music that's cheerful all the way through. That's why I love ambient music."

Recently, thanks to being featured on the website Jet Set Records' "Jet Pool" section, he has been attracting a lot of attention. Now based in New York, he's preparing a new album, and everything in both his private life and his work seems to be going well. He says that's because music makes him happy.

"I guess the best part of everyday life isn't only joy—it also includes moments of sadness. I think that balance is important (laughs). That's why I want to keep making music that has both."

Photographer: Junji Ishiguro (green)

Text: Tomoki Ohno