With “The Loop”, Jordan Rakei evolves and sublimates his music

It’s an album conducive to falling in love: “The Loop”, signed by New Zealander based in London Jordan Rakei, a little gem of soul which marks a turning point in the career of this prodigy from the teeming London scene. A shift which also corresponds to a new life.

Jordan Rakei, 32, doesn’t have our time. Since his arrival in London in 2015, he, the original New Zealander, has released five albums. Of which this one, the last, The Loop. And to stay interesting, which it has been from the start, you have to know how to change things.

This is good, it corresponds to his musical approach. “I like a lot of different genres of music, from Radiohead to D’Angelo, he admits. I wondered if I could do the same, introduce all these different vibes into the same album“.

On his record there are two very different sides of the same record, one much more rhythmic, the other more melancholic, not avoiding the piano-voice, leaving room for his magnificent voice.

Jordan Rakei had an ambition for this new record, “the beginning of a new chapter” he said, for which he wanted “another sound, another way of doing things.” He also wanted to follow his great references.

I wanted something big, like a 70s soul album, like a hybrid record, an old classic with a modern touch.

Jordan Rakei, at franceinfo

The references are obvious, from Bill Withers to Stevie Wonder, but something clicked: it was the birth of his son two years ago: “Having a child freed me emotionally… Before him, I saw myself more as a producer or a musician who sings, but now with this child and the new process put in place for this album, I assumed myself as an author and singer“.

Rap, soul, electro, jazz, Jordan Rakei collaborates with all the locomotives on the London scene, producing a lot for other artists. So when he learned a few weeks ago that he had been chosen for a year-long residency at the legendary Abbey Road Studios, he thought about the whole journey. “It means so much… I was the kid who made music in his room until the middle of the night, and now I’m in the most famous studio in the world. It’s the pinnacle, for me who considers myself more of a studio artist than a live artist.“. Talent and technique, the assurance of a brilliant future for Jordan Rakei.

Abbey Road is the greatest honor anyone could do me.

Jordan Rakei, at franceinfo

Jordan Rakei, The Loop (Decca Records). Album available. In concert in Paris (Elysée Montmartre) on September 24.