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"La Mer echos a dreamy utopia-by-the-sea" - KCRW

"La Mer...branches off into tropicália and yé-yé while exploring Claude Fontaine’s hints of bossa nova in more detail" - Flood

There is a mythical island that exists only in Claude Fontaine’s imagination. It’s somewhere off the coast of France but the trade winds blow a soothing tropical breeze. The inhabitants converse in an alluring mélange of French and Portuguese. The air is fragrant and sweet. The water is the color of Lapis Lazuli. The stone citadels of this invisible city are scarred by time, but its people exist in a velvet eternity.

If you wander at night amidst the starlit cobblestone roads, you might chance upon the official house band of this halcyon offshore republic. A mysterious ensemble fronted by an American girl with a French name singing a romantic collection of spells assembled under the name, La Mer.

With their dulcet fusion of ‘60s French ye-ye pop, slinky Studio One reggae, and liminal Brazilian tropicalia, Claude Fontaine’s songs embody the best kept dreams of a globally connected world. The second album from the Los Angeles artist reflects the dream of creating the soundtrack for this utopia by the sea.

"The island was a complete figment of my imagination, but it's where I found myself living while writing the songs," Fontaine says. "A fantasy place where I could be surrounded by the people I wanted to be around, the people I already loved, and a love that I had never had. The songs felt like prayers or a manifestation about what I was hoping to put forward."

La Mer is a mesmerizing portal. It's impossible for it to exist outside of the modern moment, but it floats on the gilded dust of the past. At times, Fontaine channels Jane Birkin as backed by Jorge Ben. Françoise Hardy locked into sonic reverie with Mulatu Astatke, or Margo Guryan making lovers rock.

None of this is a happy accident. For her second opus, Fontaine assembled some of the most gifted musicians of the last five decades. First and foremost is her co-writer and producer, the multi-platinum Grammy-Award winning Lester Mendez, whose resume includes everyone from Grace Jones and Baaba Maal to Shakira and Nelly Furtado.

As with Fontaine’s self-titled first album, Tony Chin, foil for the likes of King Tubby, Dennis Brown, Lee Perry, Jackie Mittoo, Sly & Robbie, appears on guitar, bringing the orphic tones expected from someone who has played with some of the greatest reggae musicians of all-time. On bass, there’s Ronnie McQueen, one of the co-founders of Steel Pulse. Sergio Mendes’ percussionist, Gibi Dos Santos, supplies propulsive locomotion. So does Ziggy Marley’s drummer, Rock Deadrick. And that’s just the abridged list of storied instrumentalists who appear on La Mer.

In the middle of the axis mundi lies Fontaine, building an orchestral escape to paradise. Her debut found her exploring the depths of Jamaican and Brazilian music; the passage of time has allowed her to delve more intimately into the nuances of each, and fuse them with other touchstones from her musical world, creating an intimate sphere where these all form into one unique whole. Bandcamp called the first record "a spiritual sequel to Serge Gainsbourg's late '70s Jamaican sabbatical... the kind of dimly lit hideaway where Hunter S. Thompson might have guzzled Cuba Libres." And her latest experiment in timeless rhythms yields even richer and more vibrant results.

"I write love songs. That's what compels me," Fontaine says. "I'm needlessly inspired by love, but in a deeper way than just pure romance. As you evolve, your understanding of the greater themes of life evolve too."

On “Vaqueiro," Fontaine spins the tale of a gaucho, a hardened man on horseback, a rugged soul who denies love and sweats out his sorrows from the isolation of a chaparral-strewn ranch. "Love the Way You Love" is a praver for an ardor then unrealized, but later fulfilled - a levitating hymn of golden sand and coral blue waters, heartache with only one antidote. "Green Ivy Tapestry" was written on an old mahogany bed in an ancient hotel room in London, in which the enchanted beauty of this tiny chamber symbolized the walled off possibilities within.

With a polychromatic lilt, Fontaine sings in English, French, and Portuguese. But regardless of which language is used, the translations tap into a universal Esperanto. What's matters most is how welcome and inviting these songs feel. They tap into a communal experience that unites cultures - a sensibility nurtured by travel and crate-digging, and produced with the help of pioneers of these forms. La Mer is a trip to the pristine island of the mind, but one made immaculately real by the genuine love and care of its creators.

Buy/stream La Mer out now at this link

The Ojai, California-based songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist and Mapache band member, Sam Blasucci, announces sophomore album Real Life Thing out November 1 via Calico Discos/Innovative Leisure.

The occult-dancer lead single "Witching Hour" pulses with feeling through a high energy chorus built around a beautiful and bold middle section of just percussion and vocals.

On Real Life Thing, shades of Leonard Cohen, Prince, and Bjork peak out behind Sam's new songs as well as the writings of Ariana Reines, John O’Donohue, and Edgar Allen Poe.

Having spent the last 10 years tinkering with his songwriting through his extensive catalog with folk/rock group Mapache, as well as his debut solo album Off My Stars, Sam works alongside co-producer Johnny Payne for his follow up sophomore solo album Real Life Thing. Sam and Johnny take a leap from everything they have done in the past into brand new territory for this collection of songs. Sam connects new dots and bends genres with unheard style and instrumentation on songs like "Death," with words adding to the conversation of gender and sexuality. In addition to new pathways, homage is also paid to Sam’s first loves of music through the notable Motown feel of the existential soul tune "Flower," as well as the vintage pop gleam of "No Magic."

These songs are two examples of the recurring lyrical themes of life and death on this record. “Something clicked before I wrote these songs that put me in a place of wonder and confusion and bliss that I had never experienced before.” Some of the lyrics found on this record have been previously released in Sam’s debut book of poetry "Guidelines For Dying," which quickly sold out of its first print.

While remaining quite elusive to genre or category, a few of Blasucci’s deepest influences can still be spotted throughout the musical and lyrical shape of his new album. New literary and musical discoveries seem to be constant for Sam, but shades of Leonard Cohen, Prince, and Bjork peak out behind this batch of songs as well as the writings of Ariana Reines, John O’Donohue, and Edgar Allen Poe. Sam notes that the many influences around him became heavier and more vibrant after falling extremely ill for two years between 2020 and 2022. “Gaining back my ability to be active, to travel, to live - it was all very much a rebirth in so many ways. Things emerged sharper and clearer from that period of my life”. Sam is healthy and moving forward at a seemingly fast pace with this new album and the accompanying conceptual concert film of the same name.

The film - directed by Sam and produced/shot by Bryce Makela - brings these influences and songs into a literal Real Life Thing through their collaborative visions and physical representations of the album. Filmed at the same studio where the album was recorded - Carbonite Sound in Ojai, CA - the film runs like a type of musical play. The album is performed live with stage hands and different set changes to accentuate each mood throughout the record - certainly Sam’s most ambitious project to date.

Sam was born in Los Angeles in November 1994 and currently lives in Ojai, CA. Having had residence in Los Angeles, CA / Coahuila, MX / Orem, UT & New Orleans, LA - it’s safe to assume Sam will be on the move again soon and with more fresh energy to give of himself through his art. Determined to live by creation, Sam is the type of artist that is always creating something, maintaining a sort of inexhaustible hunger to make his music. Expressing himself through sound has now gone beyond joy and into being second nature and Sam’s real first language.

Read more about it on Raven Sings The Blues

Listen to "Witching Hour" and pre-order Real Life Thing

Montreal artist and songwriter Jonah Yano shares a new single “Someone Asked Me How I’ve Been.” The latest offering from his forthcoming album Jonah Yano and The Heavy Loop, the new song takes the sonic framework of Jonah’s roaming, improvisational 30-minute track “The Heavy Loop” and distills it into a focused track that opens with Jonah’s guitar and widens its scope as more of the band joins in. At its core, the new song centers on the confusion of being two things at once – a reflection from the time Jonah spent touring in Japan for the first time, where he grappled with being a mixed Japanese person in Japan, as well as feeling lonely and aimless at a time when he imagined he’d be living a dream of sharing his music in the place he’s from.

“Someone Asked Me How I’ve Been” serves as a testament to the collaborative environment Jonah set out to create when making this album, one open to improvisation and melding the collective visions of each member in his live-ensemble-turned band: Christopher Edmonson, Benjamin Maclean, Leighton Harrell, Felix Fox-Pappas and Raiden Louis. Jonah remains at the helm as the record’s conductor and central figure, but draws on the strengths and inspirations of each member of the band to craft an album that evolves as the musicians involved work together to achieve a collective vision.

See Northern Transmissions for more.

“Green Ivy Tapestry” was written in a petite 18th century hotel room in London. The curtains and bedspread atop the dark mahogany bed were made from a green ivy tapestry, and the love stories were woven deep. 

La Mer is a mesmerizing portal. It's impossible for it to exist outside of the modern moment, but it floats on the gilded dust of the past. At times, Fontaine channels Jane Birkin as backed by Jorge Ben. Françoise Hardy locked into sonic reverie with Mulatu Astatke, or Margo Guryan making lovers rock.

Check out Flood for more information.

"an architect of recollection" Exclaim!

"warm, wistful, and quaint all at once" HYPEBEAST

"'contemplative and comforting" NPR

"His voice lilts with every syllable, making the imagery feel crushing and poignant" Pitchfork

Montreal artist and songwriter Jonah Yano announces his new album Jonah Yano & The Heavy Loop due October 4th. Coinciding with the album news, he shares two new songs, the previously-unheard “Romance ESL,” as well as releasing his momentous album closer “The Heavy Loop." Both songs, and his new album as a whole, signal an experimental new chapter in Yano’s creative trajectory and his first time working hand-in-hand with his band, Christopher Edmonson, Benjamin Maclean, Leighton Harrell, Felix Fox-Pappas and Raiden Louie. Together, they’ve crafted a collaborative album with Jonah at the helm, that melds free sound, rock, R&B and jazz traditions into a panoramic view of the experience of making an album.

Yano is a soulful, genre-agnostic talent, always shifting the unstable ground his songs rest on, revising it, making it anew. Having emigrated to Vancouver from Hiroshima at the age of four, much of Yano’s approach to music is influenced by his own fractured identity as a member of the Japanese-Canadian diaspora, as well as his larger interest in memory, family histories, and the nuances of interpersonal relationships. The result is a soundtrack that defies easy genre categorization and captures the grey area in which we can find the most fruitful experiences life has to teach us while also highlighting Jonah’s expert musical compositional skills. Yano’s band – composed of Raiden Louie (Drums), Chris Edmondson (Saxophone, Clarinet, Synthesizer), Benja (Guitar), Leighton Harrell (Bass) and Felix Fox-Pappas (Piano, Rhodes) --  first came together to record his 2023 single "concentrate" with Clairo. Now, Yano sits front and center playing the role of conductor as he guides the gentle haze of his musical soundscape into a new ever-evolving world with a steady hand. 

Jonah Yano has made songwriting contributions to fellow Canadians Charlotte Day Wilson’s Cyan Blue and Mustafa’s forthcoming album Dunya. In 2023, Jonah released his sophomore album portrait of a dog, co-produced alongside BADBADNOTGOOD and received critical acclaim from outlets like RANGE, Pitchfork, and Exclaim!. He was twice-nominated for the SOCAN Songwriting Prize, drawing the attention of Gilles Peterson, Benji B and the late Virgil Abloh. He’s played the Montreal International jazz Festival, the EFG London Jazz Festival and toured Japan for ten solo shows in 2023. Earlier this year, he released the little italy demos, a three-song collaborative tape with his neighbor in Montreal, Le Ren.

Stream the new tracks and pre-order the album here.

See Clash Magazine for more info.