PUMA BLUE (with very special guest JESPER MUNK, solo)

In the organizer's words:

"I've been trying to make peace with death," explains Jacob Allen, the singer-songwriter, producer and poet better known as Puma Blue. "It's horrible and it's painful. I would never say it's not. But at the same time, the process of it all can be beautiful." Thus, his album "Holy Waters", released in the fall of 2023, is less a morbid study of mortality than a chronicle of goodness in each repetitive cycle of life, death and rebirth, which at the end of the album finally comes to a gentle affirmation to himself as well as to the listener to keep going, "don't let the dark take you whole". It's the hopeful desolation that gets you.
'Holy Waters' was recorded with his live band during two visits to Echo Zoo Studios in Eastbourne and also marks a sharp departure from the solo bedroom productions of early EP releases, 'Swum Baby' (2017) and 'Blood Loss' (2018), an isolated approach that was later amplified on his debut album during lockdown.
Collaborations have also crept into Jacob's other work of late, fresh from producing and songwriting for Loyle Carner's album 'Hugo', alongside an impressive list of co-writes with Biig Piig, Mahalia and Lava La Rue, among others. The dopamine rush runs through "Holy Waters" as a new confidence: "It makes me proud; instead of that awkward feeling of admiring your own reflection or being ashamed of your own reflection, the music has also become a reflection of the people I love."
Together with mix engineer Sam Petts-Davies (The Smile, Warpaint), there was an approach they kept returning to as they put the finishing touches to "Holy Waters": Every element should sound like the loudest element. The result is that joy permeates every corner of the sound. The studio techniques are more analog and experimental than his previous work, but sound fuller, richer, kill the ego left in Puma Blue, and proudly pay their band-centric tribute. Inspired by luminaries from Jeff Buckley to Björk, Portishead's marriage of live band and production and the improvisational work of Can and Hendrix were particularly important influences for "Holy Waters".
With Harvey Grant on saxophone, keyboards and as co-producer, Cameron Dawson on bass, Ellis Dupuy on drums and Luke Bower on guitar, it's ironic that an album that reckons with all-encompassing loneliness was built on such a strong foundation of friendship. It's a togetherness that swirls around the first single 'Hounds', allowing Jacob's Buckley-esque line - "I'll find myself alone again" - to mutate into an unfolding post-rock brawl, where guitar swirls rattle into machismo bass and brass rumbles pierce the night like kraut-rock kissed Pink Floyd on their psychedelic comedown. It's a musical friendship that gently teases Allen's fears and embraces his sadness. On the aching "Mirage", a heartbreaking ode to the death of a school friend, the crescendo of guitars and synthesizer huddles around his lament, as if to cushion it. Good friends are there when you need them.