Orlando Weeks’ upcoming third album ‘Loja’ is a record in which place is as vital a characteristic as the emotions and incidents that he explores. The overarching themes are optimism and reflection: the positive mindset that emerged as he left London for a new life in Lisbon together with a new - found awareness about the things that you have left behind. Contentment emanates like a comforting embrace from an old friend, a tone best encapsulated by the joy the musician and his son shared as they strolled through the gardens of The Gulbenkian Museum: its towering trees, flourishing ponds and cawing peacocks inspiring fantastic thoughts that glow fervently in ‘Best Night’.
Yet life can never be as linear or as pure as unfiltered unhappiness and so ‘Loja’ on occasion captures more corrosive moods too: the motorik grind of ‘Dig’ pictures an “under your breath half-argument, the kind that only ever happens in public”. More dramatically, the solemn beauty of ‘Beautiful Place’ transports him to a beachside cafe just south of Caparica where an ordinary moment was impacted by sudden and unexpected death: yet even as the barman returned visibly distraught, the location swiftly reverted to its usual serenity.
“One of the reference points was ‘C’mon C’mon’, the Joaquin Phoenix film,” begins Orlando. “The landscape in that film felt like the newness I was experiencing here in Lisbon. Aside from the personal stories that are happening in the film, it also revels in presenting landscapes. This record is similar, I wanted there to be these distances and to create the feeling of capturing moments in very close quarters and then being as far away as the horizon. There are many snapshots in the record of tiny moments that have much larger implications.”
‘Loja’ is also a record which plays upon two contrasting strengths. The creative contributions from its musicians (primarily Sami El-Enany, William Doyle, Alexander Painter and Luca Caruso) provides an engaging, organic warmth that reflects their time playing together in Orlando’s live band, and there are also moments where their own creativity rises to the fore: most notably Oliver Hamilton’s doom-jig fiddle on ‘Tomorrow’ and Alejandro Aranda’s layers of guitars that close ‘Beautiful Place’, or the inspiring vocal performances from Rhian Teasdale of Wet Leg (‘Dig’), Tony Njuko (‘Please Hold’) and Katy J. Pearson (‘My Love is’). Yet just as important are the nuanced details that, on first listen, hide stealthily in plainsight before revealing themselves with repeated listens.
