Londoner James Math茅 aka Barbarossa builds on his contemplative and introspective 2013 album Bloodlines with his latest offering Imager, an album that聽melds romanticism with melancholy, hope with hopelessness, and home-made electronics with Barbarossa’s soulful, haunting vocals.
Imager’s eponymously named opening track is a fast paced, beat-driven slice of pop electronica complete with Barbarossa’s characteristically folksy twist. The slower paced Home featuring Jos茅 Gonz谩lez follows: a brooding, synth-heavy track more representative of the rest of the album. Barbarossa is noted for the poignancy in his lyrics and tactile approach to the creative process, and as a whole Imager is testament to this. His聽musical style is typified by the disjointed relationship between Math茅’s vocals and the sounds he builds up around them. Imager will no doubt please existing Barbarossa fans, and anyone else who appreciates the intimacy and urgency in Math茅’s voice.
His聽eclectic style and penchant for amalgamating sounds and genres can be traced back to his variegated musical past. Math茅 has toured with Jos茅 Gonz谩lez’, Johnny Flynn and Junip as a band member before he became a musician in his own right, and was previously involved with the Fence Collective. As Barbarossa, Math茅 has played alongside the likes of POLI脟A, Low, and Junip and announced recently that he will perform at The Lexington in London, 10 June with subsequent dates to follow. The album Imager will be released 11 May via .
Find out more about聽Barbarossa at .
Krystyna Sierbien
