Poor Jericho is the eighth studio solo album by Sinner Songwriter Jean Koning; produced by Jean Koning and recorded during the Covid-19 lockdown in a mobile studio in Zaandijk. The session musicians recorded their parts at home or while streaming on-line. Recording sessions were from May to September 2020.
The second single (in single mix edit) "Dear Kitty" is out now!
Presale of the album has begun on BandCamp
Buy >>>here.
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1. Corrupted Blood Incident
2. Under Milk Wood (ft. Ralph George)
3. Panem Et Circenses
4. Waltzing Under African Skies
5. Broken Horse
6. Between Corona And Surface
7. Dear Kitty
8. Liberate Te Ex Machina
BACKGROUND
#JK performed three shows in February 2020, which consisted of half of the show he performed in order to promote his 2018 album LINGO: LIFE LEGEND LOST, and half of the upcoming "MINEO" album. Shortly after those Utrecht performances, the entertainment industry was forced to pause.The entire "MINEO"-tour, which was scheduled for the summer months, leading up to the album’s release—and which also included a performance during the Montreux Jazz Festival—was cancelled.
However, the first single FEBRUARY 12, became a smash FM-radio and College-Radio hit.
However, the first single FEBRUARY 12, became a smash FM-radio and College-Radio hit.
Poor Jericho, which began life as a proposed sofa-concert album, is sparser both in production and arrangement than “MINEO”, but is similar to its predecessor in that it features overt African percussion influences and a relatively experimental piano sound. The album finds Koning's voice and piano subverted in a sonic maze of percussion washes and accidental effects, and some songs, notably “Broken Horse” and the epic “Liberate Te Ex Machina” are largely built around these sounds. Topics covered on the album include economic malaise, virology, and QAnon’s discredited far-right conspiracy theories, or conspiracy theories in general.
#JK was quoted as saying that this record says a lot about the shadows and the shadow world.
Koning believed music had become part of a constant background noise he described as "fridge buzz", and he became hostile to the music media. He said: "I always used to use music as a way of moving on and dealing with things, and I sort of felt like that the thing that helped me deal with things had been sold to the highest bidder and I was simply doing its bidding. And I couldn't handle that." Koning quarantined in his house in Zaanstad and spent his time walking the nearby fields and meadows, and reading, restricting his musical activity to playing the grand piano he moved from the studio to his house.
Inviting unemployed musicians—mainly percussionists—Koning experimented with the streams and recorded instruments to edit and manipulate the recordings. He found it difficult to use electronic instruments and techniques collaboratively on-line, during Zoom-meetings—which were often recording sessions; according to Koning, "I had to develop ways of going off into corners and build things on whatever sequencer, or piece of machinery I would bring to the equation and then integrate that into the way I would normally work."
Koning believed music had become part of a constant background noise he described as "fridge buzz", and he became hostile to the music media. He said: "I always used to use music as a way of moving on and dealing with things, and I sort of felt like that the thing that helped me deal with things had been sold to the highest bidder and I was simply doing its bidding. And I couldn't handle that." Koning quarantined in his house in Zaanstad and spent his time walking the nearby fields and meadows, and reading, restricting his musical activity to playing the grand piano he moved from the studio to his house.
Inviting unemployed musicians—mainly percussionists—Koning experimented with the streams and recorded instruments to edit and manipulate the recordings. He found it difficult to use electronic instruments and techniques collaboratively on-line, during Zoom-meetings—which were often recording sessions; according to Koning, "I had to develop ways of going off into corners and build things on whatever sequencer, or piece of machinery I would bring to the equation and then integrate that into the way I would normally work."
Sonically, the album is inspired by nature's beating heart, mainly by the way Millo Castro Zaldarriaga constructed her music to the rhythm of nature, and the Chopin Waltzes, interpreted and played by Alessandro Deljavan.
Lyrically, the album is a composition of various on-line conversations Koning followed on social media, concerning the Covid-19 situation and the many lockdowns the world over.
When the sonic and lyrical components meet, Poor Jericho offers a curious amalgam of the traditional and the modern.
More background and quotes can be found >>>here.