{"product_id":"malakoff-kowalski_i-love-you_2023_war_1","title":"I Love You","description":"\"In order to truly understand the heart of what I record in the studio, I often search for film sequences online and mute the sound to let my own compositions accompany the scenes. These shots serve as a kind of counterbalance to the music, so if my last album Kill Your Babies was like a black-and-white French New Wave film from the 60s, then the new album is more like a contemporary Wes Anderson film in color; a film set in Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, and Naples—and maybe even on a boat heading toward the Riviera.\n\nOf course, choosing to title an album I Love You raises many questions and can lead to making many terrible mistakes. I remember very well how about half of the dossier had been sketched out and how I was suffering from doubts, wondering if I had anything new, or at least anything at all, to say. At that time, on YouTube, I came across Chico Hamilton and John Pisano playing Blue Sands at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958. The whispers of voodoo drums and a guitar so simple, beautiful, and out of tune, so fragile and aggressive, seemed like something out of this world. I immediately wanted to stop everything. Did I really need to make a new album? Films, Riviera, music? Where do I stand? Things got complicated.\n\nOn top of everything, I was happy and in love. Is it even possible to work in such a state? Anyway, we were in each other's arms and I suddenly said to myself: 'I want to make an album that is as good and warm as this embrace.' In a moment like this, nothing else matters. All the concepts and neuroses we hold onto, the world's problems, the political contradictions we live in—all of it set aside for a vast moment. The next day, I wrote How I Think Of You and recorded it in three or four hours. I lay down with my back on the floor—something I never do—so I could feel the bass resonate through the wooden planks beneath me. And I was as happy as a child, realizing that I was actually still capable of making music. I was restored, and it only took me a few more months to finish the rest of the album.\n\nIt all started in Los Angeles. My last record Kill Your Babies had received the most incredible reviews—life was beautiful and private. I was sitting in the sun, drinking almond milk and considering becoming a vegetarian. That's when director Klaus Lemke called me from Germany to discuss his new film, for which he needed a main theme. It was our fifth film together, and we immediately started composing Blue Magic Berlin during that same phone call. Yet, with the ocean to my right, West Hollywood in front of me, and downtown L.A. to my left, the music didn't sound like Berlin at all. It was a new sound that really surprised me—American, Californian, blue magic—and I realized this could be the start of a new album. I hummed for a few bars—I hadn't sung in a while—and I started to really like it. On Mulholland Chocolate Martini, my humming turned into 'doo doo doo,' and at some point, I ended up singing Take Some Abuse. Rodriguez, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Richie Havens? I really don't know. But it was fun, and instead of protecting myself from sunburn, I was in the studio, busy singing.\n\nI traveled a lot over the past two years and didn't always have a piano on hand, so I often played the bass and guitar I had with me. In fact, I always use whatever is around. Instead of real drums, I like to use old, huge suitcases that you can easily find at flea markets in any city. In Hamburg, there was a vibraphone in the studio. In Berlin, I usually pick an accordion. Sweet Anna is a song that was made that way. I was sitting in the living room of novelist Maxim Biller, and we were both depressed and bored. Suddenly, half-dead and half-joking, he said: 'Come on, let's get my guitar and jam together!' The thing is, I don't 'jam.' Never and with no one. The word alone is a nightmare. But he kept annoying me and ended up strapping his guitar around my neck. We were in such a bad mood that I started playing something. Maxim came up with a little whistled melody, and in the end, I enjoyed breaking my own rules.\n\nThe last track on the album was 'Carcosa'—a piano improvisation originally recorded with a dictaphone in San Francisco and lost in my archives. In Cologne, where I was working on theater scores, I rediscovered the recording, and this very simple solo track became a fairly complex song—compared to the rest of my music. It has something to do with jazz—I call it Beat Jazz. And I believe this will be the starting point for my next record. It's always good when you think there's more to say. --- Malakoff Kowalski ---.\"","brand":"Malakoff Kowalski","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57535552389464,"sku":null,"price":23709933.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/vinyles.com\/en-us\/products\/malakoff-kowalski_i-love-you_2023_war_1","provider":"Vinyles.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}