We are very pleased to premiere today the anthemic new single ‘The Day That I Met You’ from Melbourne-based producer/musician Markus Saastamoinen: a sweet and sixties-infused track that has a lush romanticism about it. It’s an expansive, dramatic track that builds up and intensifies like a burning fuse and is a taste of Saastamoinen’s new album ‘Falling Up’ due out on 15 March 2024.
I can’t help but think of the melody-soaked big sounds of Burt Bacharach or Jimmy Webb in the delivery – a deep timbre that creates a grand, cinematic epic with an endless horizon and weeping, sweeping strings. Saastamoinen’s voice has more range than the Himalayas and more power than a tornado, while the orchestration behind him reaches a dramatic, operatic climax. The track has a velvet-suited poise and grandeur, reminding me of fellow Melbournians Cousin Tony’s Brand New Firebird.
Saastamoinen says of the track:
The song is about remembering the day that I met my girl and the anticipation of finally
seeing her again after those few years. How I would feel seeing her, all the things I wanted
to say to her, how I would tell her how I felt about her and how she made me feel! The music
for the song came from a riff that I came up with on holiday in Finland a few years ago.
It never fit as a rock song and only worked when I discovered it should be a ballad.
There is almost a mystical middle eastern timbre to the riff, swirling and exotic. The track is accompanied by an intense, personal monochromatic video (created by Ian Ritter Photography) featuring Saastamoinen in close up exhibiting the kind of intensity that flows though from the track:
‘The Day that I Met You’ is out tomorrow (Friday, 9 February 2024) and will be available here and through the link below.
Feature Photograph: Ian Ritter Photography
