New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Pierre Kwenders shares his new single, "Your Dream," off of his forthcoming album, José Louis and the Paradox of Love, out next Friday, April 29th, on Arts & Crafts. Certainly the most intimate song on José Louis and the Paradox of Love, "Your Dream" reveals an emotional side of Kwenders, as he opens up about his sexuality and the pressure of meeting others' expectations, someone else's dreams. Featuring Congolese singer-songwriter and Kwenders' former collaborator, Ngabonziza Kiroko aka NGABO, "Your Dream" creates a dialogue between two artists hailing from the same part of the world, mirroring each others' experiences with Kwenders singing in Lingala and NGABO in Swahili. Portuguese DJ and producer Branko cements the powerful ballad with his layered approach, creating a unique and timeless melody.
Beginning with a birthday voice note from Kwenders' mother, "Your Dream" explores the universal moment in life when you have no choice but to be yourself and live your own truth. "'Your Dream' is to me an open letter to my mother (we can hear her voice in the beginning and end of track)," says Kwenders. "Often in life we find ourselves confronted with ourselves and the family juxtaposition of traditional expectations of a man's life. In this song, I respond to my mother. Embracing her love and blessings certainly but letting her know that my dreams are valid and I want to be able to be the best man I can be for myself. My family grew up in a different time. A time of harsh black and white dangerous stereotypes. It's important for me that I don't fit into any of those."
Following MAKANDA at The End of Space, the Beginning of Time, Kwenders's 2017 sophomore album, and Le Dernier Empereur Bantou, his 2014 debut - both of which earned Kwenders nominations for Canada's prestigious Polaris
Music Prize - José Louis and the Paradox of Love finds the artist arriving at a new juncture: a moment of resonance, carefully wrapped in freewheeling tapestry, hinged in reverence to its diverse heritage, yet reveling in the inventive combination of its elements.
Seamlessly working across Congolese rumba, contemporary electronic music, pop-R&B, and jazz-infused progressions with a range of global collaborators including Tendai Maraire (Shabazz Palaces), Branko (M.I.A., Buraka som Sistema), Win Butler (Arcade Fire), Michael Brun (J Balvin), and Uproot Andy (Poirier), José Louis and the Paradox of Love is both an embrace of African musical tradition and an evolution of it. Singing and rapping in Lingala, French, English, Tshiluba, and Kikongo, Kwenders similarly weaves his stories across the boundaries of language and geography. Written and recorded while traversing the globe with his Moonshine
Collective - holding nearly 100 lunar-based events including a Boiler Room party in his native Kinshasa or performing for COLORS in Berlin - Kwenders has taken his Afro-electronic soirées from Los Angeles to Santiago to Paris and beyond, building a truly international grassroots community of fans and peers.
