It was a chance encounter that introduced Japanese trumpet-player Takuya Nakamura to jungle. He’d moved to the US to study under renowned jazz theorist and musician George Russell in 1990, and one night he found himself playing a concert in Boston, where he heard the bass booming from a soundsystem party in the venue basement. 

The rest, as they say, was history. In 1994 he moved to New York City, where he found himself at the centre of the city’s nascent jungle scene, which had sprung up in reaction to the genre’s explosion in the UK.  Together with a group of like-minded musicians, he started a weekly party, where they’d jam together, pulling together influences from jungle, acid jazz, and house. This led to him joining Jojo Meyer’s cult fusion band Nerve in the late 90s; he continued to tour and record with them throughout the early 2000s, while also collaborating with everyone from Quincy Jones and David Byrne to Cocorosie and Arto Linsday. 

In recent years, he’s recaptured public attention, thanks to regular sessions on New York’s The Lot Radio where he DJs and plays trumpet over the top. It might seem like a gimmick, but his improvised, soulful adlibs go hand-in-hand with the soulful breaks of jungle, drum’n’bass, and even juke and footwork. A one-of-a-kind artist with a fascinating story, he belongs at Sónar 2026.