Quantic goes full-on disco with Dancing While Falling

Will Holland wanted to experiment with new sounds and grooves inspired by the work of Bohannon and Larry Levan.

 

Here's the scoop...

The new album by Quantic aka multi instrumentalist, DJ, composer and producer Will Holland is in many ways an evolution. Now 20 years into his career, ‘Dancing While Falling’ is the British born New York based artist’s most live sounding, euphoric and, in his own words, grown up release to date. 

Predominantly recorded at his own Brooklyn studio, Selva, Quantic’s initial idea for his new album was to experiment sonically. However, after a while, he changed direction and realised that the record needed to also relate to the human condition not just his “singular pandemic wormhole”. The demos, then, started off as symphonic, loosely disco era dance music a departure from his previous Latin and Spanish instrumental releases. Influenced by legendary artists in the scene like Bohannon and Larry Levan, Quantic wanted to make a disco leaning album at first. “I’m really interested in Latin music and Afro Caribbean rhythms and I think there's a really amazing point in history where the emergence of those rhythms and its combination with American soul sparked what we now know as disco,” he says.

Get a copy of Dancing While Falling via Bandcamp right here. Listen to "Run" feat. Andreya Triana, "Unconditional" feat. Rationale and the instrumental "Tikurin" below. Check out a recent Juno Daily interview with Quantic talking about the new album right here.  

Will Holland and his partner Aziza Ali at their Selva studio space in Brooklyn.

Quantic reconnects with Nidia Góngora for Almas Conectadas

Listen to "Macumba de Marea" and "Balada Borracha" off Quantic's forthcoming Nidia Góngora collaboration Almas Conectadas.

Here's the scoop...

Almas Conectadas (Connected Souls) is the sophomore album from renowned British producer Will “Quantic” Holland and Colombian singer/songwriter Nidia Góngora slated for release October 22. 

Bubbling with symphonic flourishes, the release explores the unique, rich, and mystical musical traditions of the Colombian Pacific Coast while being recorded at Quantic’s Brooklyn-based studio and creative powerhouse Selva. Delving into the concept of the album, Nidia explains: “Almas Conectadas refers to the interrelation of cosmic energies, the aura and the way they manifest from the abstract; we are more than body and flesh and there are countless elements that connect us as beings that interact in the universe, physical contact does not always exist to be connected.” 

Nidia sings of soul’s lost at sea found by fishermen on “Macumba de Marea,” while Quantic’s orchestral layered instrumentation crescendos and flows, weaving between Nidia’s storytelling. 

“This song speaks of the importance of the rituals to say goodbye to our dead, through actions, charged with mysticism, spirituality and beliefs that define our cultural identity,” she explains.

“Balada Borracha” (Drunken Ballad), a cumbia-rock fusion melding Quantic’s cyclical guitar rhythms with Nidia’s celebratory vocals. The song is an ode to “all the drinkers and drunkards” in Góngora’s remote river hometown and Afro-Colombian community of Timbiqui, “especially my cousin Jairo Hernández (R.I.P.) and my brother Harold Angulo,” she adds. 

Almas Conectadas explores the nostalgia of impossible love, celebrates eternal bachelors, mourns souls lost at sea, and tells stories of dwellers from Timbiqui (whose location and cultural contrasts provides endless inspiration). Protecting the essence of the region’s rich songbook, and treating the cultural traditions of the Pacific coast with the utmost reverence, ‘Almas Conectadas’ is the perfect marriage of musical diversity, collective creation and intercultural dialogue. Nidia Góngora’s magnetic voice and captivating songwriting is matched to the unparalleled musicianship and pioneering production of Quantic, across eleven flawless tracks. 

Listen to "Macumba de Marea" and "Balada Borracha" below. Pre-order a copy of Quantic & Nidia Góngora's forthcoming album Almas Conectadas via Bandcamp right here.