Barbarossa shares New Single: “Awakeners Awaken Us” taken from new album: Love Here Listen out March 5, 2021 via Memphis Industries.
UK singer and producer, Barbarossa – real name, James Mathé is sharing his ethereal new single, "Awakeners Awaken Us".
The effervescent, shimmering track arrives as the latest to be taken from his forthcoming sixth studio album, Love Here Listen, which is set for release via Memphis Industries on March 5, 2021.
For this latest batch of songs, Mathé has collaborated with producer du jour, Ghost Culture (Daniel Avery, Kelly Lee Owens, Falle Nioke) at his studio in Margate, Kent in the South East of England.
Swimming in the inky blackness of the North Sea near his studio gives Mathé the out-of-body jolt that he needs to get things aligned, shed the superfluous, and focus on the nitty-gritty. Taking to the sea on most days, through the rain or shine, the darkness and cold somehow strip away layers of calcified thought, allowing Mathé to ask the real questions and deal with personal trauma and stress. Most of these swims can be heard on this new record which marks a touching and deeply-earnest addition to the Barbarossa catalogue.
"Awakeners, Awaken Us" comes off the back of previous tracks that have scored support at the likes of International media outlets. Sonically, it arrives as a glistening bed of synthesiser with Mathé drawing inspiration from previous relationships and the lessons which sadness can teach us, particularly when we let go.
"The song is basically about a relationship that I went through when I was just starting out
as an adult,"
explains Mathé.
"At the time it was all-consuming and I couldn’t see how I could recover when it ended. With perspective on it now though I can see how it helped me to know when I found the right person and how the experience taught me so much about when things don’t go to plan and that it just means to let go of outcome and trust that things will work out as they are meant to."
Barbarossa and Ghost Culture worked with a limited range of vintage synths – a Mono Poly, Korg MS-20 a Roland SH-101 and a Juno 108 borrowed from the local skate store Palm Bay Skates – with the recordings bounced down to Mathé’s Fostex R8 reel to reel to give it that undeniable warmth.
Mathé says of the recording process:
“It was probably the most stress-free record to date and so much fun just messing around with synth arps. It’s easy with James as we really understand each other and I trust him totally.
He lives five minutes’ walk along the seafront from me. We even jumped in the sea a couple of
times after lunch”.
Love Here Listen is Mathé’s sixth album since his debut, Sea Like Blood, released on the Fence Collective back in 2006, since which time he’s joined Jose Gonzales live show, become a member of Junip, toured with POLICA and This is the Kit and morphed from acoustic troubadour to electronic song smithery all the while seemingly searching for an elusive balance between hopefulness and melancholy.
On Love Here Listen, thanks to a reconnecting with the visceral forces of nature, it feels like he has found it.
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