Lo-Fi ZEN
lofi jazz, made on your phone
Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Not a playlist of finished tracks: the music is assembled on your phone as it plays, so there is no loop seam. Lo-fi jazz from an old Japanese house at night.
Lo-Fi ZEN does not play back finished tracks. The lo-fi jazz is assembled note by note, the rain and the whale song grain by grain, on your phone while you listen. It is an app for falling asleep, for focusing, or simply for passing the night.
■ No loop seam
No song is looped as a whole; everything is put together on the device as it plays. The tape loops have lengths that don't divide evenly into beats, so their overlap keeps drifting, and hours later there is still no "here we go again". That does not mean a brand-new song every time; it means nothing snags your ear, however long you keep it on.
■ Five worlds
- Lo-Fi ZEN — a wooden house in Showa-era Japan. A girl listens to lo-fi jazz on vinyl. Twelve songs across the four seasons, from a hazy spring moon to winter under the quilt. The picture follows the song.
- KUJIRA — the sea. Swell, whale song, waves, underwater, the deep, offshore wind, drift ice.
- KUJAKU — a peacock under the stars. Handpan, bronze bells, singing bowl, a distant piano, echoes, solar wind.
- YAKUMO — ancient mountains under layered clouds. Forest morning, campfire, autumn insects, rain, waterfall, mountain stream, thunderclouds, cave drops.
- KAIRO — an endless temple corridor. Into the Mist, Stone Steps, The Long Gallery, Row of Lanterns, Bell Hall, Midday Boards, Rain Under the Eaves, Endless Stairs. Drifting patterns and breathing chords.
Every picture moves: thin layers over a single painting. Rain falls, the bulb flickers, mist drifts, embers rise.
■ One dial for the sea, star and mountain songs
The KUJIRA, KUJAKU and YAKUMO songs each have a single dial. Rainfall for the rain, distance for the whale, scale for the waterfall. Turn it while the sound plays and it leans over on the spot. The Lo-Fi ZEN and KAIRO songs have no dial and simply play.
■ An ending that doesn't startle
Before the time is up the sound sinks slowly, and only its tail is left. You won't be woken by the music cutting out just as you drift off.
■ Free, and one pack per world
Nine songs are free, at least one in every world, with 10- and 20-minute sessions. Buy any world's pack (a one-time purchase, not a subscription) and you get that world's remaining songs, plus 30 and 60 minutes, "endless", custom durations, and no ads. Every song can be previewed for 45 seconds before you buy.
■ A record of your nights
Sessions are kept on a calendar. The calendar itself stays on your device (anonymous usage events such as play start and end, and crash reports, are sent to help improve the app).
Requires iOS 16 or later. Japanese, English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, French, German and Spanish (switch in Settings).
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
- New world: KAIRO, eight songs from an endless temple corridor
- Every world now has a free song (9 free songs in all)
- A gentler first launch that gets you listening right away
- Fixed the player sometimes staying locked right after getting a pack
The developer, Toshihiko Arai, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Used to Track You
The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:
- Location
- Identifiers
- Usage Data
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Purchases
- Location
- Identifiers
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Toshihiko Arai
- Size
- 74.1 MB
- Category
- Music
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 16.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 16.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 16.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 13.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
English and 7 more
- English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Contains
Advertising
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- KAIRO Pack $7.99
- KUJAKU Pack $7.99
- YAKUMO Pack $7.99
- Lo-Fi ZEN Pack $7.99
- KUJIRA Pack $7.99
- Copyright
- © 2026 Toshihiko Arai