Live Studio Session: Dan Samsa releases new single Decay (feat. Rosie Strobel)

https://youtu.be/XxXNQ8Wxxk8

Dan Samsa, the South London multi-instrumentalist, sound artist, pianist and composer releases new single Decay. Featuring vocalist Rosie Strobel, Decay is the final single taken from Sama’s debut album Contours, which will be released next week. Out now, Decay arrives with an official music and accompanying live studio session.

Taken from the debut album Contours which will be released on 20^th May, Decay continues to display the multi-faceted artist’s ability to glide between jazz, experimental electronics, classical influences and many more.

Decay also features the vocals of long-time collaborator Rosie Strobel, who Samsa collaborated with on the previously released single Surge along with many other projects over the years.

“The vocals were a collaboration with Rosie Strobel where I first explained the Tithonus/Decay concepts and suggested a quote from Shakespeare. Rosie then created a wonderful lyrical jigsaw, made up from fragments of Prospero’s speech (The Tempest, Shakespeare) and the poem Tithonus by Alfred Lord Tennyson which break down and re-construct themselves like a voice lost in the ether.”

– Dan Samsa

Decay is Samsa’s new single which follows Ascent, Impression and Surge. With the debut album arriving next week, and already gaining support from Gilles Peterson on BBC Radio 6 Music and Worldwide FM, Samsa is a name who continues to pick up acclaim as one of the UK’s most exciting experimental jazz artists. With a UK album tour soon to be announced, Samsa also unveils a live studio session for Decay, showcasing the superb musicianship of his players:

Contours features collaborations with vocalists Zosia Jagodzinska and Rosie Strobel, whilst the arrangement skills of Raphael Clarkson form the inspiriting brass section. Spanning the realms of jazz to experimental electronics, there’s an obvious IDM element present across each of the eleven tracks. Having grown up in South London and regularly performing live and DJing, it’s Samsa’s classical training and experience of performing with live acts such as Kae Tempest which has enabled him to construct an LP that embodies both the impeccably trained jazz musician alongside his influences from Kamikaze Space Programme, Dillinja, Photek and Special Request.

As an artist who operates with innovation always in mind, Samsa sees music not only as an auditive phenomenon, but also as a spatial and social manifestation; he therefore meticulously curates his recordings to allow for the impact of space, then performing it in a way that envelops the listener and challenges their notions of what sound and music can be.

Incorporating recording techniques via a 360° microphone on the album whilst performers and collaborators were being directed around spaces including Southwark Cathedral to create atmospheric vocal textures, 2021 saw Samsa perform a new and immersive 360° live show with the London Contemporary Orchestra, the Southeast London dance group Birdgang and some of London’s finest jazz musicians titled SPECTRUM°. A compelling live display of the Contours album, the sell-out show received outstanding reviews, including 8.9/10 by DJ Mag.

Having produced his forthcoming album as an ode to time and the potential of change, in Samsa’s own words “It’s the sheer diversity of music as an artform that excites me” with Contours bringing together time, space and a wide range of musical registers into a seamless whole where all are designed to be equal. Contours has been recorded and produced to work as a live surround sound show as well as in stereo and an online 360° VR-experience. It’s outcome, is to demonstrate an entirely new way of approaching music that Samsa hopes will influence many in the years to come.

Taken from Dan Samsa’s forthcoming album Contours which is set for release on 20^th May, Decay is out now via Apollo Records.