Jo Meares‘s music has an unerring ability capture a celestial sense of vast open spaces while remaining intimate and personal. His deep tenor and crystalline instrumentation is again a feature of his new track ‘Just Dreams’ which we are honoured to premiere today ahead of its release on Thursday, 11 November 2021.
Razor sharp percussion and strings create a sweeping,billowing surface across which his bewitching, reflective and wry delivery skates. Rain swept landscapes and darkened skies are steeped within his delivery and evocative story-telling: leaving us in a dreamy reverie, hypnotised and mesmerised.
Influenced, like many, by the turbulent past 18 months, Meares says of the track:
I suppose it’s a song that really relates to lockdown though it’s more just a poetic statement about any situation and that it will pass. I wanted the song to be hopeful in some sense.
As with his previous releases, Meares’s artistic vision is breathtakingly brought into life by the accompanying video consisting of Andrei Tarkovsky clips, which are exquisite and graceful – matching scenes of bleakness with impossible beauty. Meares says:
I tried to capture that strange feeling of the disruption of time and how lockdowns affected our relationship to nature and the world – which is why I chose Tarkovsky images for that same feeling that seems to pervade his films.
Meares, collaborating with Melbourne musician Anth Dymke of Pony Face, manages to draw in those elements of music that make it so cathartic and moving – think of artists like Tindersticks, Sigur Ros and the like who manage convey such feeling and emotion into their work, resulting in extremes: a sort of euphoria mixed with melancholy. With two extraordinary singles already covered by me over the past year (‘Reasons‘ and ‘The Dirty Game of Art‘), Meares is building up towards the release of an album in 2022: something to look forward to.
‘Just Dreams’ is available through the link below:
One of my favourite artists around at the moment, you can catch Meares live with his band and Jessie Newling on 26 November 2021 at Sydney’s iconic The Gasoline Pony – full details and tickets here.
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