Takeshi Nishimoto and Hiroshi Watanabe announce ‘Curving Time’
Takeshi Nishimoto and Hiroshi Watanabe release the album “Curving Time” on Lo Recordings on 6 November 2026, recorded over twelve years.
Takeshi Nishimoto and Hiroshi Watanabe release their first collaborative album, “Curving Time,” on 6 November 2026 through Lo Recordings.
Nishimoto plays acoustic and classical guitars, electric guitar, loops and fretless bass. Watanabe handles keyboards, synth bass, electronics and programming, and recorded and mixed the album. The eight tracks were recorded on and off over twelve years, with sessions split between Watanabe’s private studio in Japan and Nishimoto’s living-room studio in Berlin, Germany.
The album’s eight tracks are:
- “Winding Air”
- “Pivotal Point”
- “Layer of Images”
- “Serendipity”
- “Where To”
- “Puzzling”
- “Empty Park”
- “After The Time”
Nishimoto plays fretless bass on “Pivotal Point” in addition to the guitar parts that run through the record. Lo Recordings issued “Empty Park,” track seven, as the album’s first single on 18 September 2026.
“Curving Time” is available on limited cassette and digitally, with pre-orders open through Lo Recordings and advance streaming through the label’s SoundCloud page.
About Takeshi Nishimoto and Hiroshi Watanabe
Takeshi Nishimoto is a Japanese guitarist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and educator who composes and performs across contemporary classical, ambient, electronic and cross-cultural music. He trained classically at the University of Southern California and developed a style rooted in European classical repertoire, North Indian classical music, jazz and minimalist composition. He has collaborated with John Tejada, Burnt Friedman, Robert Lippok and Mike Shannon, and released music through City Centre Offices, Sonic Pieces, Nonplace, Tho, New Kanada, Cynosure Recordings and Palette Recordings.
Hiroshi Watanabe is a Tokyo-born electronic music producer and DJ who produces melodic techno and ambient tracks. He studied synthesizers at Berklee College of Music, spent time in New York’s underground scene, then returned to Japan. He also records under the alias Kaito, with releases through Kompakt and Derrick May’s Transmat Records, and more recently through InFiné.
“Curving Time” is the first album Nishimoto and Watanabe have made together, drawing on more than twenty years each in acoustic and electronic music. It arrives on Lo Recordings on 6 November 2026.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
