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The Mirror

by Nagasaki Swim

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Beautiful blue marbled vinyl with kraft pack inner sleeve.

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  • T-Shirt/Apparel

    "NAGASAKI SWIM" classic t-shirt on Gildan Heavy Cotton printed by Pressure & Ink in Cologne. Limited to 50 pieces.
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

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  • Sky blue vinyl - with insert and two postcards
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    - Limited edition version of the LP on blue marbled vinyl
    - Hand-numbered insert (only 100 made!) with artwork by Nick Corbo
    - Two out of four available postcards with artwork/pictures

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Mirror via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.
Company 03:05
Been stuck in my soul Wallow in the dark cloud The days are creeping in on me Do anything, to get out I wish I knew Choose wisely now Looking back at the days In the Pacific Northwest I woke up in a bed of mist And stared as the fishermen Emerged on the lake Life will have Mysterious days When you don’t know what you want anyways I wish I knew Choose wisely now There’s a distance to my goal But lately it’s been vague Unravels itself When you wait the right time But don’t forget to feel Life will pass you by I wish I knew Choose wisely now Float on and on I don’t know how
2.
Solitude 04:39
Taking a walk downtown In the Indian summer You’re coming over soon Through the autumn glow Double vision’s a bummer I’m shifting in between You miss the little things Solitude will bring My life was split in two I’m glad to share with you But when you cut out all the pieces Feelings fade in and out You lose a grasp on your person Losing the weight of the heart There is a strength in the silence Subtle wind in the trees I waited for the storm Coming down on me Taking a walk downtown In the city of everything I hope it’s worth the wait There is a winter glow So much life in the districts I really see you now When the sirens ring I miss the sound of home My life was split in two I’m glad to share with you
3.
Six Months 04:13
Just the way it goes Lying on the couch And I’ve been trying To make sense of my goal Six months ago Already seems so far away I need to Make sense of my soul You heard it before It seems a common theme Of my generation’s tendencies Care for politics But only when it fits I am a fraud ‘online activist’ When it falls apart Apocalypse I guess that we deserved it For all we’ve done But I’ll still complain About the things that I thought I Could do I was wrong
4.
The Weight 02:04
Bleeding nose I’ve freaked out before Have I made enough records So I can go to sleep We carry the weight Of knowing it ends I’d rather look away Than face it again Death takes its toll on a body But not as much as life Everything is fucked up But I enjoy my time
5.
The Water 04:26
Complicate it For no reason Keep your head up So stubborn Does it scare you, that we want somebody new? Does it scare you, that the change is becoming real? Does it scare you, that I’m going where the water is fresh? Does it scare you at all? Got invested So stupid Get your hopes up again No one gets it Does it scare you, that we want somebody new? Does it scare you, that the change is becoming real? Does it scare you, that I’m going where the water is fresh? Does it scare you at all? Don’t mind me now I’m not giving up I just need a rest right now but Don’t mind me now
6.
Big Swan 01:46
Hold on Calm down Won’t be around For a while Big swan Late bloom Stay put I’ll be back
7.
The Bean 02:53
Conversation piece of a memory From my conscience As I panicked that day on the subway Losing confidence I saw my demons In your mirror I was proud of myself for a minute Independence But the city it kept moving faster Losing confidence I saw my demons In your mirror I met my demons You’re my mirror
8.
The Mirror 04:24
I’ve been out and about But a wonder in my mind Have I lost a focus in my life? And what you said In the mirror it was true Falling back into this anxiousness Constant spiral Disappoint myself Don’t be hard on But it’s just what I felt To be better Might be to let go Of my anxiousness Sometimes I wish I was there Just doing my own thing Everything you ask, I say yes of course Swan, I see you again And I know I’ll be okay Slowly everything falls in and out of place Constant spiral Disappoint myself Don’t be hard on But it’s just what I felt To be better Might be to let go Of my anxiousness

about

“Everything is fucked up but I enjoy my time. ”

Jasper Boogaard always juggled myriad projects. Too many, in fact, as he himself started to realize a year ago. It dawned on him that he needed a focal point of some kind. The question remains: how and where does one find such a thing when new opportunities and creative jolts keep arising, when new developments unfold in the world to be affronted by, and when said world suddenly stops in its tracks? An extended period away from home granted Boogaard a ton of new inspiration, which led to yet another endeavor to add to the pile: Nagasaki Swim. This one, however, managed to stick for the longer haul.

Jasper Boogaard has been living in Rotterdam for all his life. It’s a city he considers home – both in its concrete outlines and the vibrant music scene operating between its seams. In terms of his musical interests, Boogaard looked elsewhere for like-minded souls. “It may be an odd example, but I’m such a fan of the split single: one artist doing one side and another the other. It’s something I’ve sought out to do all my life, but there aren’t many artists in The Netherlands to do that with.” On the other side of the Atlantic there’s a surplus of bands and artists who operate on a similar wavelength as Boogaard: it was one of the reasons to earn his stripes as an audio engineer at Philadelphia’s Headroom Studios, the bulwark where the likes of Alex G, Algernon Cadwallader, Hop Along and Modern Baseball have recorded. In these months, Boogaard meets a ton of new people, discovering the ideal environment to seek new knowledge and find his own voice. When he returned to The Netherlands, things clicked into place. The accumulated experiences, skills and creativity set the stage for The Mirror, Boogaard’s first album as Nagasaki Swim.

“Initially I thought I was going to make a record about my time in Philly, and all the things that happened over there”, Boogaard explains. “When I came back, I felt fed up with The Netherlands. I figured: “I’m packing my bags and I’m going back again.” After a few months of reappraisal, he gradually started to grow back into his old home again. The music that manifested itself was driven by reflection – who was Jasper Boogaard over there, and who was he over here? That sense of displacement caused occasional rifts of frustration: why can’t a person live at two places at once? Why can’t he choose, period?

‘Solitude’ finds Boogaard strolling across downtown Philadelphia during a beautiful late summer afternoon: he enjoys the scenery, but at the same time, he contemplates the little things he can’t find over here. ‘The Bean’, inspired by a somewhat unfortunate visit to Chicago is followed by sounds of home: the ambience of Rotterdam, and the birdsong outside. ‘Big Swan’, concurrently, reconstructs a moment when he leaves his door for America, watching the waterfowl in the canals in his street. Feelings of homesickness and wanderlust invade a single headspace, causing Boogaard to “never feel quite present”.

Ultimately, The Mirror transcends the tale of two cities that anchors many of these songs. The life that resumed after Philadelphia – and ringed to a halt again during the pandemic – made as much an impression as anything on the album. During the first weeks of the lockdown, Boogaard spent the bulk of his time in his home studio looking for a way to channel everything in a focussed and exciting way. It resulted in many of Boogaard’s ongoing projects (Midwinter Bonfire, Goodnight Moonlight) drawing to a natural close. Nagasaki Swim, meanwhile, emerged.

As a result of his recent adventures, The Mirror didn’t exactly become a traditional record with a set group of musicians. Boogaard asked many friends individually to contribute to the tracks. One of those guests is violin player Molly Gerner, who performs regularly for Alex G among others; she takes center stage on ‘The Water’. One of Boogaard’s fellow alumni contributes lap steel flourishes to ‘Six Months’ and ‘Solitude’ further imbuing that homely alt-country spirit into the music. This newly cherished love for pastoral sounds forms a fresh injection to influences Boogaard drew from over a longer period, namely bands such as LVL UP, Woods and Mount Eerie. The connective tissue that makes Nagasaki Swim a living breathing vehicle was yet another new project: under the name J.T. Boogaard, he composes field recordings and soundscapes. According to Boogaard, wants to add “that sense of being present” – as he himself puts it –, whether that’s in Rotterdam or Philly, or a dreamscape that highlights the best of both these worlds. - Ruben van Dijk (translated to English by Jasper Willems)

credits

released March 26, 2021

Written and performed by Jasper Boogaard
Bass by Jasper Werij
Drums & additional vocals by Jim Luijten at Schenk Studio
Violin/arrangement on The Water by Molly Germer
Lapsteel on Solitude & Six Months by Wessel van der Spek
Additional vocals on Solitude & The Mirror by Jente Lammerts
Additional vocals on Six Months by Roel van der Meulen
Recorded & mixed by Jasper Boogaard
Mastered by Jack Shirley at The Atomic Garden
Artwork by Nick Corbo

Thanks to Fokke de Wit, Ruben van Dijk, Dirk Baart, Headroom Philadelphia, Jasper Willems, Bart Kalkman, friends + family

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Coaster Records Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Coaster Records is an independent record label from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. A DIY label with a love for analog media, underground music and visual arts.

Contact us/send demo's: info@coasterrecordings.com

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