Dfe008 Risa Murakami 💯

What we know: Murakami is a classically trained pianist who studied at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo. In her early twenties, she became fascinated with the Detroit techno and Chicago house records that arrived at Japanese import shops via the “second summer of love” revival. But rather than produce bangers, she fused her academic understanding of impressionist composers (Debussy, Satie) with the rhythmic simplicity of Larry Heard’s Mr. Fingers project.

Before DFE008, Murakami self-released two digital EPs on Bandcamp under an unpronounceable Kanji pseudonym. Both were taken down in 2018, making the remaining copies of DFE008 the earliest accessible artifacts of her work. dfe008 risa murakami

The release comprises two original tracks, with a third locked groove on the B-side for the physical edition. The A-side opens not with percussion, but with field recordings—distant crosswalk signals, the murmur of crowds fading into reverb. Then, a Rhodes piano chord washes in, submerged in tape hiss and vinyl crackle (even on the digital master, the warmth is intentional). Risa Murakami builds the track patiently. A sub-bass pulse enters at 1:20, but the kick drum doesn’t arrive until the two-minute mark. What we know: Murakami is a classically trained

What makes “Midnight in Shibuya” stand out among deep house cuts is its harmonic tension. Murakami employs suspended chords that never fully resolve, creating a feeling of melancholic drift. The track’s only vocal sample—a female whisper saying “mada nemurenai” (I’m still not asleep)—loops every 16 bars. It’s hypnotic, lonely, and utterly beautiful. The B-side shifts tempo slightly, from 118 BPM down to 112. Here, Risa Murakami draws more explicitly from her Japanese heritage. The melody is played on a koto—a traditional 13-string zither—but processed through a granular synthesizer, chopping the plucks into micro-sounds that flutter like raindrops. Fingers project