Dreamlike sonic worlds between ambient and jazz: Dutch-born musician and producer Jonny Nash delivers an album with Once Was Ours Forever that slows things down and creates spaces for silence. Comprising eleven tracks, the record feels delicate and fleeting — strong individually, but one wonders if it’s ever meant to be played straight through.
»Angel« gently wraps itself around the listener, while »Blue Dragonfly« seems to translate a summer evening into sound. »Bright Belief«, with its acoustic guitar and lightly distorted vocals, drifts through an airy sonic panorama. Particularly fascinating is its dialogue with Haruka Nakamura’s »Twilight« (2010): while Nakamura wanders between liminal worlds, Nash audibly stays on the daylight side — and yet, both share a fragile sense of stillness.
Jonny Nash’s music slows down the world, inviting immersion and pause. Once Was Ours Forever isn’t made for quick consumption but for deliberate, mindful moments of retreat — music like a nap in the sunshine: light, flowing, and quietly profound.
