Kingo Halla is a New York City-born singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who is now based out of Owen Sound, Ontario. Kingo Halla was born Henry Nozuka into a musical family of Japanese-American descent. Nozuka’s alter-ego Kingo Halla was birthed in Toronto, where he grew up writing songs with his brothers and creating artwork on multiple mediums. As a producer and engineer, Henry works out of his studio Shijō Studios. He has a deep passion for vintage instruments, analog gear, and tape machines which shines through in his lush compositions. Through his work Kingo Halla fuses jazz, soul, and psychedelia into alternative R&B atmospheres that supports his smooth soulful vocals.
Kingo Halla’s debut album Empty Hands was released on February 24 2023 while finishing an MA at Berklee College of Music, where he was recognized by the Berklee Staff upon graduation by receiving The iZotope Award: Honoring Innovation in Music Production. Empty Hands is a poetic exploration of love, longing, impermanence, prayer, and faith through melody and otherworldly sonic landscapes. The album features collaborations with legendary jazz guitarist Mike Stern, and features additional vocals from Henry’s older brother Justin Nozuka.
Empty Hands has already earned him nods and shares from fellow musicians, tastemakers, and DJs such as BBC Radio 6’s Giles Peterson, Dan Digs (NPR) CBC Listen, Badbadnot Good, KCRW, Clash Magazines playlists, Tidal’s Rising R&B and Toronto’s Jazz FM91.
While studying Jazz Vocal at Humber College, Henry began working with River Tiber recording tape machines and learning the multi-instrumentalist production workflow, which was a significant learning experience for him as an artist, producer, and engineer. Later in 2019, Nozuka started frequently writing and working with Alex Sowinski of BadBadNotGood. This collaboration has turned into a full album collaboration project which is currently being funded by the Canada Council for the Arts under their 2023 Research and Creation Grant.
Kingo Halla will be releasing his follow up EP entitled “Reflections” on February 23, 2024.