The ripple effect of Roadburn 2018’s San Diego Takeover is still felt in 2026: the East meets West jam where Kikagaku Moyo and Earthless lifted the room in higher spirits (out of a shared love for Flower Travellin Band, Far East Family Band en The Taj Mahal Travellers). Just as importantly, this gathering made psychedelic music the fertile topsoil from fruitful new alliances as well.
After the disbanding of Kikagaku Moyo, lead singer Tomo Katsurada hasn’t exactly looked in the rearview, devoting his artistry to delineating the present over echoing the past. The scope is firmly aimed at the future alongside Jonny Nash, solo artist and label founder of Melody Is Truth label. Both these pioneering souls operate in a space where song, atmosphere, and abstraction gently overlap.
After admiring each other’s work for years, the pair began working together in 2024, having become friends while living in Amsterdam. Their first collaboration came when Tomo invited Jonny to play on his debut solo EP Dream of the Egg, followed by Jonny joining Tomo’s live performances for the project. What began as a one-off collaboration quickly developed into a close creative relationship, built on a shared musical language and mutual interest in the possibilities of expression with a simple set-up of two guitars, cello and voice.
Tomo and Jonny began working together when the latter contributed to the former’s solo EP Dream of the Egg in 2024 – their coalescing sensibilities deepening into an inspired musical friendship. Their joint LP At The Emerald Pool is an intimate, timeless and quietly expansive work.
