Soulful artist Jorge based in Lisbon, Portugal has enchanted us with a shiny new album ‘’Entre Células’’, released earlier this summer with dream pop and ambient music that literally reaches for your hand and transcends you away into galaxies.
Imagine a world where there is nothing but peace. An endless, lush meadow with green fields, white clouds ahead, maybe some sunflowers, water trickling down a sparkling lake, and some birds playing in the sky or maybe even you, flying. At least that’s what it feels like from the moment you click on the first track from the 8 songs in this misty and magical album experience. Jorge mentioned how the workings of the album were inspired by this, saying: “in a world where everything seems to be out of control, it’s best to reconnect to the simple things in life. The sky, the water, the flowers, little unseen things that make the world go round.’’ This album cannot be missed and it is on all digital platforms, yet I believe it deserves to be accessed through more platforms.
It’s clear that Jorge is inspired by artists such as Jullianna Barwick; they are both artists that work with electronic music influenced by alternative and ambient tunes. Jorge took these inspirations and created an electronic audio space in which he seems to have experimented with feelings of peace, co-existence, and free falling into the reassuring nothingness. His catchphrase is, therefore “a vast universe lies between 2 cells.’’ This leads to how this album encompasses tracks that are so diverse in sound, yet they all gather up in a beautiful way to show the ‘infinity’ and ‘simplicity’ of the spaces between each track.
The overall sound of the album is very calming, almost like an easy breath with each song playing. Most of the rhythms are very slow and the music sets you into a reflective mood. It’s perfect for meditation since the musical arrangements almost imitate the dreamy synth waves tones but with a much more sophisticated and universal outtake.
Many songs are created in such a way that the harmonies are repetitive yet serene in how they play out. The harmonies are quite atmospheric and floaty, like candlelight shadows flickering in a temple. The song would start slowly and build up its way into intense melodies in a way that makes you feel like you were thrown into space amongst the stars, just floating. The drum kit and cymbals are used softly in most tracks, with the simple piano made up of very few notes to set the tone for some of the tracks.
The names of the songs really give away what you’re about to listen to. All in Portuguese of course; the theme is a day in life and how it looks like from a peaceful, meditative perspective, which usually advocates for full acceptance of one’s existence as they are on earth. The album starts with slow, pleasant tunes with the song called ‘ Pela Menha’, meaning ‘’by the morning’’, followed by telluric dreams, then ‘Respira’ which means breath. This song in particular has a surprising oriental beat that reminds you of Spanish Andalusian music, with the fastest rhythm on the album. The last two songs are called “When night falls’’ and the last ‘’Sequential looks’, which bring us to the end of the day’s journey, introducing some soothing vocals echoing alongside some ‘’outer spacey’’ tunes, indicating the day successfully falling in peace and it’s time to rest deeper.
This album really lifts you and takes you to a different land from the ones we are used to being in, away from chaos and distress and into peace, acceptance, and serenity. I recommend this album to anyone who wants to become free of anxiety, focus on breathwork, or simply appreciate the simplicity of it all.