Category: singer/songwriters

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Marcos Jobim Shares Meditative “Silêncio”

Brazilian singer/songwriter and musician Marcos Jobim released his sophomore album, Singelinha last year. Sonically, the album sees the Brazilian artist branching out into multiple sonic directions, traversing across Brazilian popular music, folk and world music, while also featuring elements of rock and concert music. But the material is guided by the delicacy of the arrangements and the power of its poetic lyricism.

Fittingly, the album’s songs shift between intimate and expansive atmospheres. Instrumental album title track “Singelinha,” which was originally written back in 2023, was the album’s starting point — and was inspired by his desire to achieve a poetic and sonic synthesis. “I was seeking something with a synthetic character—something that could convey deeper insights through a simple, objective form,” Jobim explains.

Following the recording of “Singelinha,” the idea emerged that the Brazilian could expand upon the project. “The process was so inspiring that we realized we could create something on a larger scale,” he says. The end result was the 13-song album that featured ten songs and three compositions.

Much of the album features two versions of most of the album’s songs: one version featuring solo acoustic guitar arrangements, as originally written and another version arranged for a chamber ensemble with violin, clarinet, trombone, cello, tuba and double bass. Those arrangements were revised and edited by Pablo Schinke, who also handled production and engineering duties. “Pablo was fundamental to shaping the album’s sonic identity, in addition to performing as the cellist,” the Brazilian artist says. “He possesses a keen eye for aesthetics and brought a sense of balance and innovation to the tracks.”

Schinke went on to meticulous work to preserve the unique character of each track during the mixing process, “He always made a point
of preserving the essence of the compositions, even during moments of
greater experimentation,” Jobim adds.

Jobim will be embarking on his first international tour this year, but in the meantime, he further establishes Singelinha‘s aesthetic. The album’s latest single “Silênecio” is a meditative, introspective song anchored by a gorgeous arrangement featuring acoustic guitar, brooding strings and clarinet and gently padded drums paired with Jobim’s dreamily laid-back delivery.

Filmed by Zé Carlos de Andrade the video was shot in the Bacupari District in Mostaradas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The video follows Jobim in the desert. conveying solitude while serving as an invitation to the listener to slow down and listen to the void that surrounds us.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Hannah Scott Shares Thoughtful and Politically charged “Sitting In The Dark”

Suffolk-born, London-based folk artist Hannah Scott will be releasing her newest EP Threads on June 19, 2026. Threads is the follow-up to Scott’s widely praised third album, 2024’s Absence of Doubt.

The EP marks the first effort the Suffolk-born, London-based has both written and self-produced. She worked alongside acclaimed engineer Adrian Hall and recorded piano, acoustic guitar and vocals at home — with a makeshift vocal booth in her wife’s wardrobe. The EP’s material is inspired by family, nostalgia and grief — and perhaps in a small, unexpected way, a desire to change the rental market for the better. (Shit, you got me there, lady!)

The EP’s second and latest single “Sitting In The Dark” showcases Scott’s thoughtful storytelling rooted in a subtle yet powerful critique of capitalism and the local rental market, calling out the greedy developers, landlords and others, who have helped to put her narrator in a lousy apartment that she can barely afford with shitty furniture and power outages.

I have a shitty and greedy landlord, so this song hit close to home. You’ve most likely have been there, too.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: SHOLTO Teams Up with Phoebe Coco on Brooding and Atmospheric “Everything is Stolen Anyway”

Initially known as being one-half of indie outfit Sunglasses for Jaws, the rising London-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Oscar “Sholto” Robertson grew up with with a deep and abiding love of jazz, soul, krautrock and soundtracks from the 60s and 70s. As a producer, Robertson honed his production skills under the guidance and tutelage of Allah-Las‘ Nick Waterhouse and Inflo.

A handful of years ago, Roberston stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with his recording project, SHOLTO. And with SHOLTO, the rising London-based multi-instrumentalist has firmly cemented a cinematic take on instrumental, psychedelic soul. 

Now, as you may recall Roberton’s sophomore SHOLTO album, last year’s 12-song The Sirens was recorded at the JOVM mainstay’s Hackney-based SJF Studio, and the album saw him continuing an ongoing collaboration with a familiar cast of musicians, including Syd Kemp (bass), Clementine Brown (strings) and Rachel Horton Kitchlew (harp) to craft an album that’s emotionally unflinching and explores themes of duality temptation and emotional dissociation, “blurring grief with groove, seduction and surrender,” as Robertson says.

Sonically, The Sirens saw Robertson building upon the groove-driven, string-soaked soundscapes and ethereal textures that have won him attention in the UK and beyond but while evoking a haunting, uneasy fever dream.

Robertson’s latest single, “Everything is Stolen Anyway” sees the JOVM mainstay diving deeper into his long-held trip-hop influences with a brooding, jazz groove-driven arrangement that seemingly channels Portishead, Tales of Us-era Goldfrapp and No Angel-era Dido among others.. The song also features frequent collaborator Phoebe Coco‘s mesmerizing, whiskey and longing soaked vocal.

“Everything Is Stolen Anyway” is rooted in two central concepts: the comfort in repetition and that nothing we feel or think is entirely new. “Moments of love, loss, wonder and the quiet awe of the sea’s tide arrive to us as if they’re ours alone, yet they’ve all been lived before. Borrowed feelings, borrowed time,” the two collaborators say.

“’Everything is Stolen Anyway’ leans into the thought that art works the same way; every melody, every painting, every idea carries echoes of something earlier,” Robertson and Coco continue. “Songs are fragments passed forward, reshaped, reframed, and retold through new hands and new voices. In that sense, nothing is truly original. But the first time you hear or feel something, it becomes new again.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 93rd Birthday, Willie Nelson!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Willie Nelson’s 93rd birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jonathan Personne Shares Groovy “Rêve américain”

Initially known for his roles as co-founder, co-lead vocalist, guitarist, lyricist and songwriter in internationally acclaimed JOVM mainstay act Corridor, Montréal-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, animator and visual artist Jonathan Robert is by both necessity and nature, a prolific and versatile artist.

Back in 2015, he began archiving his overflowing ideas, when his girlfriend gave him a Tascam four-track recorder. This opened a world of possibilities for the French Canadian artist, fueled by his enthusiasm for a wide range of musical genres aligned by his lo-fi sensibilities. He began compiling demos with similar sounds and inspirations, and before publicly releasing a song, a discography was taking shape.

This creative process eventually evolved into Robert’s solo project, Jonathan Personne, which derives its name from the French version of John Doe — or perhaps a bit more accurately, Jonathan Nobody. The project’s name reflects his determination to simultaneously not represent a specific person and to better reflect his multifaceted artistic identity. Over the past seven years, he released four albums that saw him drawing from a wide range of influences including desert dream pop, Morriocone-esque Spaghetti Western rock, The Clean-like jangle pop, Latin-influeinced grooves, Galaxie 500 and Yo La Tengo-like indie rock, as well as sampling, sequencing and beatmaking. And he’s done this while working on albums with his primary gig, Corridor.

Typically, Robert finds himself working three albums simultaneously. Although he gives each project the time it needs to be distinctive, there’s always one that’s on the verge of completion. The French Canadian artist’s Jonathan Personne debut, 2019’s Histoire Naturelle drew from desert dream pop, Morricone-esque Spaghetti Western rock and jangle pop, showcasing some of the project’s earliest written and recorded material. Thematically, the album’s material focused on the potential end of the world, which with the album’s timing, may have been alarmingly prescient.

His sophomore Jonathan Personne album, 2020’s Guillaume Chiasson-produced Disparitions was primarily written while the Montreal-based artist was touring with Corridor and his full-length debut was being mixed.

He began 2022 by signing with Bonsound, who released his Emmanuel Éthier-produced self-titled third album. Written alone on an acoustic guitar in a cottage, the album took an unexpected turn, when the Montreal-based artist went to Quebec City-based Le Pantoum with his friends and frequent collaborators Samuel Gougoux (drums), Julian Perreault (guitar), Mathieu Cloutier (bass) and the aforementioned Éthier (violin, synths, mellotron, vocals and production), who helped flesh out the album’s material with arrangements featuring electric guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, Rhodes, timpani, mellotron, synths, violin and samples from obscure TV shows and movies. But unlike his previously released Jonathan Personne work, the self-titled album had a much more polished production.

His fourth album last year’s Nouveau mode was a melodic, sometimes noisy effort that brought together previously unreleased songs from different periods of the project.

Robert’s fifth Jonathan Personne album, Répertoire is slated for an August 28, 2026 release through Bonsound. The album’s material can trace its origins back six years ago: When he began working on what would eventually become Repertoire, the Montréal-based artist sensed a significant change in direction and chose to focus on another set of songs instead. This lead to his acclaimed, self-titled third album. Répertoire reportedly sees Robert bringing some light to his firmly established melancholic sound, with the album’s material drawing from yacht rock and dream pop to create something entirely unexpected. Anchored around melodic bass lines, looping figured and self-sampled guitars, the result is a sound that’s groovy yet contemplative, dreamlike yet noisy.

Thematically, the 10-song album sees the French Canadian JOVM mainstay reflecting on his relationship with music, vacillating between moments of repulsion and ones that remind him why he chose — and loves — his career.

Répertoire‘s first single, album opening track “Rêve américain” may be the funkiest song of Robert’s growing solo catalog to date. Seemingly a mind-bending blend of yacht rock, Les Imprimés and Monophonics-like blue-eyed soul and indie pop, “Rêve américain” explores the feeling of disillusionment over an idealized notion of success, specifically referencing his last tour across a dysfunctional, fucked up Trump-era United States with a droll sense of irony, exasperation and fear.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 78th Birthday, Kate Pierson!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates The B-52’s co-founder Kate Pierson’s 78th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 56th Birthday, T-Boz!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates TLC’s Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins’ 56th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 109th Birthday, Ella Fitzgerald!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 109th anniversary of the birth of Ella Fitzgerald.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Britney Freud Shares Broodingly Atmospheric “Feelings For Violence”

Dragut Lugalzagosi is a Copenhagen-based singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind behind the emerging solo project Britney Freud. And with Britney Freud, Lugalzagosi explores masculinity, vulnerability, love without focus on gender while advocating for men and boys to be more open about their feelings and emotions. He describes the project’s sound as “tender crooner noise, catchy limbo punk and a fresh take on indie rock.”

The Copenhagen-based artist’s Britney Freud debut single, “Feeling For Violence” is a brooding and atmospheric tune, featuring bursts of shimmering guitars, a supple and propulsive bass line, buzzing bass synths and a wobbling violin solo serving as a lush bed for Lugalzagosi’s achingly tender baritone croon singing lyrics lamenting the difficult end of an important friendship. The song’s narrator admits his complicated and conflicted feelings about the friendship and his friends with an unvarnished, unflinchingly honesty and vulnerability: The sense of hurt, betrayal and love the narrator feels is both palpable and deeply lived-in.

“An important friend relationship went to pieces and I felt lost, so I wrote this song and went to therapy. It helped. I still love him,” Lugalzagosi explains.

Directed, filmed and edited by Pelle Raft Calum, the accompanying video for “Feelings For Violence” follows a burned-out finance bro dancing and vamping on a high school track. He winds up in the woods where he explodes in violent frustration before collapsing from exhaustion. At some point, a disheveled figure, perhaps Britney Freud appears and offers the burned-out finance bro a comforting, understanding hug.

“We men dominate in several discouraging statistics and I’ve known boys and men who have committed violence, self-harm and suicide,” Lugalzagsoi says. “They’ve lacked a language for their emotions and a sense of being seen in a world of sometimes claustrophobic gender roles, norm porn and taboos. I often find it difficult myself navigating in being a man and opening up so let’s just have it: More love between men.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 90th Birthday, Roy Orbison!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 90th anniversary of the birth of Roy Orbison.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Genesis Owusu Shares Breakneck “LIFE KEEPS GOING”

Acclaimed multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu will be releasing his highly-anticipated third album REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE through OURNESS on May 15, 2026.

REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE reportedly sees one of Australia’s most celebrated and visionary contemporary artists construct an exposed state-of-the-day record that’s experimental yet cohesive, desolate yet ecstatic, unflinching yet free. Duality is at the core of an album that sees the JOVM mainstay layering musings on an unsettled world with piercing reflections of his, and our own places within the world. Rich in lyricism and earnest in its message, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE is a resolute effort that confronts a divisive era in which humanity and its institutions seem to be ripping apart at the seams and heeds a desperate need for unity.

Sonically drawing from and meshing elements funk, neo-soul, Brit rock and alt pop the album’s overall sound feels both sprawling and deliberate.

“The world hasn’t ended yet,” Owusu. says. “We’re still moving, we’re still jumping, we’re still living, and so we shall continue. Through rain, shine, exploitation and warfare. We, the people, will always stubbornly persist, and hopefully persist hand in hand.”

“LIFE KEEPS GOING,” the album’s latest single is a gritty, club friendly tune anchored around a propulsive, drum ‘n’ bass-like production featuring rapid-fire skittering beats, thumping, organ rattling low end and atmospheric synths. The track’s production evokes seemingly unstoppable force and movement and over the breakneck instrumentation, Owusu muses on time and the motions of life, finding strength and inspiration in their relentless, disobedient nature. Birth, love, war, heartache, despair, time cycling forward and death will continue well after all of us — and in turn, all of this — will be gone.

Directed by Isaac Brown, the frenetic accompanying video for “LIFE KEEPS GOING” was shot in Accra‘s massive Black Star Square, which was built for their independence and is steeped in national unity. We see Owusu by himself dancing and rocking out in the square and in a gorgeous, dream-like sequence on the beach at sunset. And although Owusu is a larger-than-life figure, his smallness in the face of such immense settings, the sea rolling in and out, the sky above are all serve as reminders of the song’s central themes — and why we need more unity in our world.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tricky Teams Up with Marta Złakowska on Breakneck “Out of Place”

Trip hop pioneer Tricky will be releasing his 15th studio album, Different When It’s Silent July 17, 2026 through his own label, False Idols. The new album is the first full-length effort from the legendary and influential artist and producer under his own name in six years.

Different When It’s Silent came about during a rather prolific period of activity. Since 2020’s Fall to Pieces, Tricky has released material under several different guises including, Lonely Guest‘s 2021 self-titled effort, a collaboration with Mike Theis, called Theis Thaws, which released 2024’s Fifteen Days and last year’s collaborative album with Marta Złakowska, Out The Way.

Returning to releasing an album under his own name took on a different shape. Recored between Tricky’s home in France and sessions in Bristol, the album is reportedly a direct, focused batch of material that reconnects with the distinct sonic language that has defined the legendary artist and producer’s work since 1995’s iconic Maxinquaye. And he does by drawing deeply on the musical community that has shaped him and his work. Central to the album’s sound is Bristol-based vocalist Mitch Sanders, whose soulful falsetto is featured through such of the album’s songs. Their deep connection reflects a shared musical background and an instinctive chemistry between the pair.

“In my mind it was another side project” Tricky explains. But after hearing the material, his manager Alan McGee felt the songs clearly belonged to a Tricky record.

The 14-song Different When It’s Silent sonically sees Tricky blending skeletal blues, brooding electronics, distorted guitars and stark hip-hop rhythms into a sound that’s simultaneously stripped-back and expansive. The album moves fluidly across different styles while rooted in the restless experimentation that has long defined Tricky’s work over the past three-plus decades.

“I just love making music” Tricky says. “I’m grateful I’ve had the chance to live this life and keep creating.”

Different When It’s Silent‘s first single “Out of Place” feat. Marta Złakowska features a brooding and cinematic string sample introduction before morphing to a breakneck middle section which features Tricky’s imitable gravelly vocal with a punchy, almost punk-like deliver and Złakowska’s sultry yet restrained crooning. The song closes with a boarding and cinematic string sample. The result is as song that’s simultaneously forceful, uneasy and gorgeous while evoking the sweaty, self-aware sensation of somehow being out of place in your environment through a shifting series of contrasts.

Originally written for Złakowska’s own album, Tricky ultimately reclaimed the song for the forthcoming album.

Directed and edited by Steve Gullick, the accompanying video for “Out of Place” features the collaborators shot in blurred and constant motion in the foreground. In the background we see stylishly shot footage of each artist singing their respective part — or just being in a brooding photo shoot. It further emphasizes the feeling of being out of place.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Alewya Shares Sultry Club Banger “Saleh”

JOVM mainstay Alewya is an acclaimed London-based singer/songwriter, producer and visual artist. Born in Saudi Arabia to an Egyptian-Sudanese father and an Ethiopian mother, the acclaimed London-based artist has spent her life surrounded by diaspora immigrant communities: She grew up in West London and after a several year stint in New York, she returned to London. Upon her return home, the Saudi-British artist developed and honed her ear for music through the sounds of the Ethiopian and Arabic music of her parents and the ambient and alternative rock albums of her brother. 

She’s part of a generation of artists actively redefining global music, a generation that’s generally rooted in heritage, yet unbound by it. Describing herself as a painter, who makes music, Alewya approaches sound as texture and feeling, guided more by intuition than structure. Her sound and story help to widen the Black British frame, bringing the often under heard North and East African perspective into a much-needed focus. 

Back in 2020, the JOVM mainstay burst into the scene with an attention grabbing feature on Little Simz‘s “where’s my lighter,” which caught the attention of Because Records, who signed the rising artist and released her critically applauded debut, 2021’s Panther In Mode EP. 

Alewya’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, ZERO is slated for a June 26, 2026 release through Because London Records. The album reportedly embodies years of artistic growth into an effort that’s both deeply personal and sonically expansive. But the album also marks a significant milestone, as it sees her boldly stepping into a new creative era, defined by fearless experimentation and cultural fluidity. 

ZERO will include the previously released “Night Drive,” feat. Dagmawit Ameha and “City of Symbols,” “Eshi,” and the album’s latest single “Selah.” Produced by longtime collaborator Busy Twist, “Selah” is a sultry, club banger anchored around pulsing Afrobeats-like instrumentation and production paired with a propulsive, infectious bass line and the JOVM mainstay’s effortless, hypnotic delivery. “Selah came from playful instinct,” Alewya says.

Directed by Iggy London with creative direction by Lee Trigg and movement direction by Kitz Katila, the accompanying video for “Selah” captures the cathartic release of joy, sweat through color and dance at a Black London party. This kinetically shot video should remind you that there’s true freedom and unity on a strobe-lit dance floor — and that Black folk are fucking beautiful.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 90th Birthday, Glen Campbell!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 90th anniversary of the birth of Glen Campbell.