Backseat Mafia is pleased to premiere the new instrumental single ‘Invincible Summer’ from Portuguese instrumental artist, producer and composer JP Coimbra. The single comes off Coimbra’s debut album ‘VIBRA’, out through Manners McDade’s neo-classical label Cognitive Shift on 9 September 2021. The album was recorded in various public spaces around Porto, including a Metro station (Estação do Marquês), an underground river (Rio de Vila), the stairways of a grand concert hall (Casa da Música) and a modern art gallery (Serralves), creating a sonic palette upon which the spaces surrounding the recordings became just as important as the instruments.
The challenge any instrumental piece has is to express emotions and feelings in the absence of words and vocals: to provide an aural depiction without labels attached. ‘Invincible Summer’ does just that: it has a delicate lightness with the bright and sparkling piano interplaying and contrasting with sweeping strings that create a low and ominous backdrop. The piece is statuesque and graceful: it ebbs and flows like a stream, a faint echo and reverberation of the surroundings is discernible. As the strings pick up the folds of the piano lines, the movement of the piece ascends at times before resuming its delicate journey.
Coimbra says of the piece:
At the mixing session instead of using technical terms I used specific images for each piece. In this case I wrote on the mixing notes, “think about Cambodia, Vietnam or Laos during the sixties. Think about the war, but don’t forget the beautiful sunsets and landscapes, the drinking, smoking, dancing and about falling in love without knowing if you’re going to survive the next day.
This dichotomy is mirrored in the two threads that bind the piece together and it’s the vast and cavernous spaces in between that make this piece so stunning and celestial.
The accompanying video mixes breathtaking landscapes with a mesmerising performance by Coimbra in a vast open architectural cathedral: emphasising the drama and theatricality of the spaces around him that influence and change the music:
The track is available to download and stream here through Cognitive Shift Records.
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