14 January, 2021Print
Puma Blue Announces ‘A Late Night Special’
A ONE-OFF CONCERT FILM TO BE BROADCAST FEBRUARY 11
DEBUT ALBUM IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS OUT FEBRUARY 5
FEATURING NEW TRACK "SILK PRINT"
“a wonderfully bleary-eyed focus that ties-together jazz, ambient, acoustic singer-songwriter and blues in one beautiful stretched reverie” - Loud & Quiet (8/10)
“a prodigious talent with greatness in his sights” - Complex
“[a] heady fusion of sounds…pristine jazz and soul inflections [with] a nod to the glossy futurism of Timbaland. Style and substance in equal measure” - Clash
“an intimate, jazz-inflected brand of bedroom R&B … soulful and grainy and intoxicating” - American Songwriter
Puma Blue will celebrate the release of his eagerly anticipated debut album In Praise Of Shadows with a one-off concert film titled ‘A Late Night Special’. The live performance, which is set to be filmed at the historic Battersea Arts Centre in London and features an expanded eight-piece band, will be broadcast on February 11.
Perfectly suited to the after-hours ambience of Puma Blue’s nocturnal hymns, the live performance will be treated with an arresting visual flair courtesy of CHILD, a directorial duo whose previous credits include visual projects for the likes of Robyn, The xx and Richard Russell’s Everything Is Recorded.
Tickets are on-sale now via DICE, priced at $14, and the show itself will be broadcast at 10PM Eastern Time on Thursday February 11 in the US (check site for broadcasts in other regions): https://dice.fm/artist/puma-blue-ggm6
Commenting on the concert-film, Allen said, “It was difficult to imagine how to represent In Praise of Shadows as a live experience without the option to tour - but the opportunity to shoot something special at Battersea Arts Centre seemed really fitting. It’s a venue that was devastated by a fire in 2015 and subsequently restored by a team who consciously left the damaged original structure on show. It felt like a really powerful space for the album to exist in. I was just drawn back to the idea of 9coming to a place of acceptance with the darker things in your past and recognising them as an important part of your present self.”
Having already built anticipation for the album with the release of "Opiate", "Snowflower" and "Velvet Leaves", Puma Blue revealed his latest album cut "Silk Print" on Christmas Day. Already a fan-favourite following its inclusion as an untitled track on 2019’s live solo album on his own (Live at Eddie’s Attic, Atlanta) the track finds the 25 year old artist at his unguarded best, mournful vocals set to skeletal, spine-tingling production.
Asked about the song, “This was a song I wrote in 2014 about getting let down by someone I had feelings for. I played it just once at an open mic night to my two friends that came to watch me and never played it again or recorded it. I don’t know why but something made me revisit it last year. The recording on the album was my first attempt at playing it since I wrote it, and I wanted to leave it that way to capture that vulnerability.”
The self-directed video for "Silk Print" pays homage to the official video for ‘Hallelujah’ by Jeff Buckley, himself a key influence on the album along with Björk, Sade, D’Angelo and many more, and finds Puma Blue performing alone in a candlelit studio and filmed entirely on 16mm film by Director of Photography Jamie Harding.
In Praise Of Shadows is available to pre-order or pre-save here. Physical formats include a limited edition 180 gram milky clear double-vinyl packaged with an optional signed album polaroid.
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