Joe Nora

Joe Nora crafts electronic beats versatile enough to stand alone or pair with an array of indie rappers, making his sound ideal for study and relaxation playlists. His expanding catalog features multiple projects on the Friends of Friends label, including Between Dunes (2021), Toy Animals (2022), and Puzzle Face (2024), alongside production work for underground artists such as Sxmniak, Chief., and Chester Watson.

Josef Nygaard was born in San Francisco, where an early fascination with music led him to master several instruments during childhood and begin producing beats as a teenager. He later completed studies in audio production at Columbia College in Chicago before relocating to Los Angeles, where he balanced shifts at a bike shop with studio engineering work while pursuing music and photography in his spare time.

After exploring a range of styles from aggressive hip-hop instrumentals to dubstep, Nora settled on a signature approach rooted in his passion for swimming, translating sensations of submersion into layered synths and pulsing rhythms. These fluid, atmospheric qualities surfaced in his initial independent releases, among them the 2017 track “Suuurf,” the 2018 EP Seaside, and the 2019 beat tape Fell Into the Pool. He soon joined forces with like-minded producers in the ambient and synthwave scenes, such as Karavelo on 2019’s Favorite Color, Rain, Yuutsu on the 2020 release Inner Ocean Sessions EP. 3, and Heather Grey on 2021’s Friendship Seven, while also supplying beats to unsigned rappers including Sxmniak on “giza” and Chief. on “Downtown.”

Nora’s profile rose further after joining the Los Angeles-based Friends of Friends imprint, which has issued some of his most intricate material to date. His debut single for the label, “Time Alone,” appeared in 2021 and preceded the immersive Between Dunes EP, created with fellow producer Shrimpnose. Subsequent releases grew even more substantial, encompassing 2022’s Toy Animals along with the 2024 projects Puzzle Face and Parasol.