Mystery voice crowns the melancholic gospel set in a western landscape – Pekka Laine‘s new single is also released as a limited 7″ vinyl edition.
The second single from the “Pekka Laine & The Enchanted in Slumberland” album, which will be released in September, is not a quick creation blobbed out in the world in an instant. “Sorrow and Pain,” combining a Gospel-inspired melancholy with an eerie widescreen landscape, has gone through an evolutionary process that is far from predictable. It all started years ago with a mysterious male voice, which guitarist-composer Pekka Laine heard in the home studio of a friend. The moment is alive in his mind.
“When I heard the guy’s singing voice, my head immediately clicked. Who is this? Reborn Gil-Scott Heron?”
The deep resonant voice belonged to a singer and musician named Jay Nemor. The man’s bass voice had jazz, soul and the natural charisma of a storyteller. The seeds of “Sorrow and Pain” had been planted. Laine had twiddled a gospel theme and text blank on the guitar. The raw Soul-Funk base was recorded in the garage studio. Now the perfect narrator’s voice had been found in the blank. It belonged to a former professional basketball player born in Houston, Texas, who had settled in Umeå, on the west coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, after a colorful life. There, Jay still divides his time between music and theater projects and family life. The singer, who has created a personal interpretive touch in the corners of Soul and Jazz, was immediately ready to play when Laine proposed a collaboration. Demo was sent on its way, and in the return mail came a great interpretation of the song within a day.
Watch the official video for “Sorrow and Pain” through the YouTube player below:
Purchase and Stream the track here: https://orcd.co/ldzyakm
Purchase the 7″ here: https://www.svartrecords.com/en/product/pekka-laine-sorrow-and-pain-7-/12668
Tracklist 7″:
A Sorrow and Pain (feat. Jay Nemor)
B Electric Basement
“In a dream I heard music with a strange bubbling sound. People were dancing to it in a surreal, cavernous space. What is this, I asked. One of the dancers stopped and answered. It’s an underwater disco. In the morning, I grabbed my guitar and tried to recall what I had heard. Those foggy fragments became Malibu Beach.” – Helsinki 4th of June 2024, Pekka Laine
For Pekka Laine, the twang of an electric guitar is not a warm blanket of nostalgia. Instead, the echoing sound usually associated with surf and retro instrumentals is a ticket to the imaginary.
On this sonic journey, Laine is joined by The Enchanted, his powerhouse live band that has taken both festival and club stages by storm. Pekka Laine and his trusty space-age guitar take the listener to a place where a futuristic and humid disco sound, perfect with obese beats and robotic vocals, reigns supreme. Trippy vocoder vocals and Moog wizardry are provided by Antti Vuorenmaa, the synth sensei associated with several leading Finnish indie bands and a trusted member of the extended Enchanted family.
Pekka Laine‘s second album “Pekka Laine & The Enchanted in Slumberland” will be released on 27th of September 2024 digitally, CD and in three different vinyl versions: on a classic black vinyl, wonderful transparent green vinyl and limited edition of 100 white/green/orange marble vinyls hand-crafted by Pekka Laine himself at the Helsingin Levypuristamo. The limited edition is available only on the Svart Records online store.
Pre-Order the album here: https://www.svartrecords.com/en/product/pekka-laine-pekka-laine-the-enchanted-in-slumberland/12567
Tracklist:
A1. Ruhr by Night
A2. Malibu Beach
A3. The Drifter
A4. Sorrow and Pain
A5. Preludio
A6. Lucifer Dreaming
B1. Sunflower Kid
B2. December Skies
B3. Landola
B4. Veronica Was Here
B5. Fumemos un cigarillo
B6. Slumberland
