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BLACKWAVE. Unveil Video for New Single ‘recluse’

Marking their first release of 2021, recluse is the dazzling single and video from blackwave.

blackwave 2021

Antwerp-based rapper Jay Atohoun and singer-producer William Ardui have teamed up to cumulate their musical ideas and creativity into their joint project, blackwave., and they shared their first new material for 2021 in the form of single and video recluse. With an effortless groove and sensuous falsetto, the track lures you into a laid back and calm state, as you allow the mellifluous textures to wash over.

Sharing more about the track, the duo says:

While the process of making ‘recluse’ started about two years ago, the content of it is as relevant as ever to us. It encompasses a lot. Among other things it’s about feeling isolated, it’s about love and loss, it’s about looking inward and trying to understand yourself. These are themes we were dealing with prior to the pandemic, but came to the surface even more during all of it. We worked on the song restlessly for the last months, ever changing the arrangement, redoing vocal recordings, reharmonizing different parts… It was a journey. Sound-wise we were really inspired by 70’s soul like Curtis Mayfield and Al Green. Listening to those records made us experiment with different recording and mixing techniques like sending the drums through vintage tape and echo machines to get that warm, retro sound.

Elaborating upon the accompanying visuals, they explain:

The video by Michiel Venmans and Jaan Stevens represents everything we reflect on in the song in a perfect way. You can interpret it in various ways, and we don’t want to fill in the meaning of it too much, but what they captured with these visuals is that feeling of isolation, the uncertainty of what is going to happen, the intricacies and difficulties of love, the recognizable feeling of being too much in your own head…