BREE, JONATHAN - Sleepwalking (Sealed) (LP)

Until recently a fairly well kept New Zealand secret, Jonathan Bree's music has infiltrated the laptop speakers of millions of listeners around the world thanks to break out hit `You're So Cool'. `Sleepwalking', the third album from the Auckland based composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, has a heavy orchestrated element featuring real strings, horns, celeste and soprano vocals. Jonathan's deep baritone sets quite an erotic tone_ The arrangements draw distinct influence from orchestral pop of a bygone era (think Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra, or Scott Walker), but many of the songs dip in and out of the avant-garde in a way that is also distinctly modern. His aforementioned 2017 runaway hit `You're So Cool' (attracting more than 3,3 million Youtube views) is included on the album. Featuring the mysterious masked band `You're So Cool' was voted best music video of 2017 by Time Out New York. A plucked cello, minimal bassline and drum pattern ground Jonathan's trademark `bendy strings' which make a number of appearances across the songs of `Sleepwalking'. Second single `Say You Love Me Too' - a duet with Catalunyan musician Clara Vinals - bewitches the listener with a distinct Serge Gainsbourg sounding style of production. When Jonathan Bree is not producing and performing with Princess Chelsea, running his indie label Lil' Chief Records (15 years of bedroom pop and 50 releases strong), or directing his own masked music videos - he is driving himself mad by trying to achieve Brian Wilson levels of sonic bliss in his home studio. In the noughties Jonathan wrote and produced 4 albums and 4 EPs for The Brunettes, of which one was released on Seattle cult label Sub Pop, before the band broke up in 2010. His first solo album `The Primrose Path' was released in New Zealand in 2013. The album drew much critical praise and was a finalist in the `Taite Prize' - a respected arts award. Jonathan's second album `A Little Night Music' drew similar critical praise locally and saw Bree venturing into more free-form territory, further breaking away from more traditional pop formulas. `Sleepwalking' subsequently reaches the next artistic level.