Unge Colombia by Simon Alejandro

“Unge Colombia” is Bergen rapper Simon Alejandros third solo album. It’s been four years since his last release “Paris EP 1 & 2” (2018). Since then Alejandro has been working behind the stage with multiple cultural and social projects. The day Covid19 hit us in 2020 Alejandro had just come back from a trip to Copenhagen and went straight to the studio with longtime friend- and music collaborator Lars B. The tracks that were recorded that night were going to be the start of the fresh new album “Unge Colombia” that’s being released on the Jungelen imprint March 11th.

The singles “Flows”, “Undergrunn Samurai”, “Sjakk” and “Bakgård” has received great feedback from local newspaper Bergens Tidende and national radio station NRK P3, who’s been promoting and pushing the songs.

“I’ve been listening a lot to Planet Asia, Bahamadia and French rapper Alpha Wann while I’ve been writing this album, trying to sharpen my pen and vocal techniques” Alejandro says about his inspirations for the album. During several lockdowns in Norway he found time to get back to rapping and spend more time in the studio than he had been doing the last four years. This gave him headspace and room to dig for samples, write and record.

The album consists of 12 tracks spanning from 90’s hiphop inspired beats and sharp flows to slow disco/boogie loops and playful lyrics. Together with some of the best beatmakers from Norway, Denmark and France Alejandro has made a solid piece of work. Productions are mainly done by Lars B, who has made almost every instrumental for Alejandro's earlier releases. The beats are on point and sounding crispier than ever, leaving Alejandro room to do what he does the best.

Piñata Radio/Plaisance Records founder Tom Manzarek steps up to the table serving the how-can-he-do-it-so-smooth instrumental for “Sjakk” and multiinstrumentalist Christoffer Holm, one half of the danish jazz/hiphop supergroup Yellow Spoon, has delivered the right sounding Dilla vibe on “Bakgård”.

On the downtempo and jazzy track “Fakta på lørdag” Lars B has sampled the Norwegian jazz legend Karin Krog’s track “The meaning of love” from the cult classic “We Could Be Flying” (1974). “The meaning of love” features musicians Steve Kuhn (piano), Steve Swallow (bass), Jon Christensen (drums) and Karin Krog (vocals). The original Karin Krog song has been cleared for sampling for the Unge Colombia album.

Joining Alejandro on the m.i.c is the always-steady Sean Lightfoot (Aarhus, Denmark), Stupac (The original drummer of the award winning rock band Hvitmalt Gjerde) and LARS (which is Lars B’s new rap alias). Interludes includes VJ-master Juan Qin and multitalent Sommelier T, in addition to Simon Alejandro himself doing the scratches on "Live fra Møhlenpris", “Kode”, “25 lightere” and “Outro”.

All press photos and covers are made by the talented artist Mila Elisabeth Larvoll. The album is mixed by Deckdaddy and mastered by Christian Obermayer for Strype Studio, with financial support from Bergen Kommune.

Simon Alejandro is a rapper from Bergen, Norway.

He's been on the m.i.c since 2006 and has released several projects both digitally and on vinyl together with his partner in crime Lars B.

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