SALOMEA announces new single ‘Love U’

“LOVE U” is the new easy-going and summery single by the German R’n’B, spoken word and jazz band, SALOMEA. The intuitive harmonic language of the song was created combining the live instruments of the band members with Rebekka Salomea’s soulful voice as the centrepiece, and it retains the playful nature of jam sessions. But as with most things by SALOMEA, the music is layered and deep even at its most carefree. “I want to tell a story and make myself and others truly believe what I am saying while staying light. The melodies are complex but they still flow naturally,” says the German-American vocalist and composer.

For this track, in particular, Rebekka Salomea says it was important that the message of her lyrics got across since they were written as a mantra of sorts, “What we say to ourselves matters. The song is a reminder to treat ourselves with the same kind of respect we want to be met with by others,” she says. “Girl you’re alright, don’t you forget after dark comes light”, sings Rebekka Salomea – as much to listeners as to herself. The song builds on a spirit of positive reinforcement, kindness and tenderness, both lyrically as well as melodically, “oh.no.ty, who co-produced the song, really had me bring out a sweetness and almost naïve sound in my vocals”. Rebekka Salomea’s vocal candour is accompanied by the band’s distinctive groove – Yannis Anft on keys, Oliver Lutz on bass and Leif Berger on drums provide the inventive rhythms that the words weave themselves to, and together with oh.no.ty’s programming their sound transforms in a modern R&B tune.

It’s a sound that marries the spaciousness of jazz with the lush harmonies of soul, and in all its brightness still ponders on a certain wistfulness. “It’s bittersweet to me. It’s playful, yes. And bouncy. But I remember very well that finding its essence and core was not easy,” says Rebekka Salomea. In her most valiant timbre, she repeatedly sings, ‘I’ll love u till I die,’ reminding listeners of the inseparability of love and death – both core themes in all of Salomea’s work, not least the band’s second, highly-acclaimed album “Bathing In Flowers’. Still, “LOVE U” is far from a bleak exploration of these concepts, it takes a more lighthearted path through absurdity and somewhere along the way, Salomea’s voice channels the gentle empowerment needed to carry on, “I know from experience that I will not be able to truly believe or feel other people’s kindness until I know to accept kindness from within.”