Jacaranda by Alex Kozobolis

During covid my partner at the time would take her daily lockdown walks to the edge of her neighbourhood in Mexico -
up to a wall with a Jacaranda growing on the other side , almost out of reach..

It became a poignant metaphor of some glimmer of shared hope for a reality beyond an ailing relationship and an ailing world.

I wrote some lyrics in spanish, double checked them with google and then sampled / cut up the google translate lady's voice reading them out ..

having only just started to learn Ableton a few months earlier my production skills had hit a whole other kind of wall and i parked it..

Revisiting it again in early 2024 I began to view the track as a homage to Mexico and started experimenting with new ideas, different placement of existing parts, added lots of new instrumentation and dug up some old field recordings i'd recorded on a trip to Mexico City in May/June 2019 - most notably the recording that precedes the chorus ..

for anyone who's ever been to CDMX you may recognise that sound as the message broadcasted from scrap metal collectors as they drive past in their vans : ]

there are also field recordings from the canals of Xochimilco and the bustling pavements of Mexico City nestled in the track..

Last and by zero means least i asked a wonder drummer friend of mine who now lives in CDMX- Ian Chang [of Son Lux] - to add live drums to the piece

Alex Kozobolis is an English / Greek, self-taught composer and visual artist, based in London / Brighton UK.

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