Capturing the Moment in Sound

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Akira Nakamura is an Okinawa-born drummer, composer, and music producer. After graduating from Berklee College of Music, he began his professional career in the United States and has since worked internationally, living and working in Germany, China, and Japan. He has performed with artists including Hiromi Uehara and David Fiuczynski, and has worked across a wide range of musical contexts, from jazz, pop, funk, and classical music to experimental music.

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Alongside his career as a performer, Nakamura has continued to develop his work as a composer. In 2007, he formed element of the moment in Okinawa, releasing five albums with the group. In 2009, he formed the AKIRA NAKAMURA trickstewart band in Tokyo, which went on to release two albums.

In 2023, he launched his solo project akira.drums, now presented under the name Akira Nakamura. His compositions are built around simple melodies, with repetition used extensively in the surrounding arrangements. He explores an idea he calls “four-dimensional music,” bringing together two kinds of time within a single composition: time moving linearly from past to future, and time created by cutting, editing, and repeating recorded sound. Influenced by both Western musical approaches and Japanese Zen thought, he creates music in which stillness and momentum coexist.

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In live performance, Nakamura uses a drum set incorporating triggers and effects, together with synthesizers and other electronics, to create fully improvised hybrid performances. Responding to the space, the audience, and the energy of the moment, the music takes shape in real time.

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Nakamura has also maintained a long-standing commitment to Okinawa’s local communities. Since 2020, he has served as Festival Director of Jazz in Nanjo, organized by Nanjo City, and since 2022, as Festival Director of NAHArt Jazz Month / NAHArt Jazz Week, organized by Naha City. Through workshops and educational programs, he continues to create connections between music, local communities, and people.

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Discography

Akira Nakamura

• we always knew (2026)

• we can be, what we want to be (2024)

• we have only one season (2023)

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AKIRA NAKAMURA trickstewart band

• Kai (2018)

• coin of truth (2010)

 

Selected Performances

• 2025 Copenhagen Jazz Festival — Artist in Residence

• 2025 Taipei Dadaocheng International Festival of Arts

• 2025 Music Lane Festival Okinawa

• 2024 World Music Festival @ Taiwan — Official Selection Artist

• 2024 Music Lane Festival Okinawa

• 2023 Music Lane Festival Okinawa