Surrealist nostalgia
Jesse and Forever wrote and recorded “Stravinsky and the Eternal Space Cowboy” during a three-week creative burst, in his kaleidoscopic Forever Basement studio, in Brooklyn.
Having spent the former months traveling the country side of the state of Minas Gerias, with a regional circus company, Jesse returned to his self-decorated underground space, surrounded by colorful fabrics, mannequins and odds and ends. He aimed to create an American saudade sound - a style that is joyful, but nostalgic, with lush dreamy landscapes.
Focusing on themes of self-delusion, the passage of time and friendship, he drew inspiration from the surrealist techniques of collage and juxtaposition.
Jesse used his voice, sax, clarinet, flute, keyboards, drums and guitar on this project, as well as the sounds of various basement visitors — bassist Carrtoons, guitarists Nick Hakim and Mike Haldeman, pianist WTF Bach and drummer Pablo Eluchans.
Who is the Eternal Space Cowboy? He’s a man with a weathered face, who sits on a distant planet, gazing at the passing solar system, with a cigarette in his fingers.
Selected Press:
"An alt-psyche-soul-jazz swirl of Beck, Brazil, and the Beatles."
"Pretty jazz rock... that gives you the feeling of looking out on a glimmering body of water on a bright day."
As played on Anthony Valadez's KCRW show and Gilles Peterson's show on the BBC.
