Luis Mojica releases the musically extemporaneous and dreamlike orchestral music with video in the form of ‘City Friends’. Visualizing the comradery of the music really added an aura of melancholic compassion and benevolence not found in most music today, but here it works brilliantly, almost with a tear in the eye mentality. Luis is a musician that is in touch with his feelings and can not only wear them on his sleeve but give it to others when they need it.
‘City Friends’ is now available across digital platforms, including Spotify. It is also available via Bandcamp and can be immediately downloaded when ordering the full ‘How A Stranger Is Made’ album, set to release on October 4.
About Luis Mojica
Confessional singer-songwriter Luis Mojica has released his new single ‘City Friends’. Earlier, he announced his new album ‘How A Stranger Is Made’, to be released in early October, while teasing the first single ‘The Ranger’.
This album features production from Mercury Prize-winning producers David Baron (Bat For Lashes, Peter Murphy, Lenny Kravitz, The Lumineers) and Simone Felice (The Lumineers, Bat For Lashes, Dan Mangan) and mixing by three-time Grammy award-winning producer Justin Guip (Levon Helm).
Mojica’s new long-play is intimate and empathic – a beautiful tapestry of piano-driven songs that quite intimately express his healing journey through shamanism, sexuality, trauma and ecstatic joy.
“I wrote this song while walking in NYC’s East Village. The St. Mark’s bookstore had just closed, my favorite tree in Washington Square Park was severed in half, and all around me, my beloved neighborhood was changing so rapidly. I walked around feeling so much loss and, this song became a container for me to pour all kinds of loss I had experienced into it. The loss of friendships, lovers, cities, cultures, the identity of self. I finished the song years after leaving the city for Woodstock, NY. You can hear a duality in the track: a somber, lonely piano and vocals against an upbeat drum and then a full-on ecstatic sounding chorus. It was my way of celebrating the loss, the gentrification, and the betrayal – in hindsight. It all brought me to a new life that was much better for me. So I became grateful for the forced growth and transformation,” says Luis Mojica.
“I asked 25 of my friends in Woodstock, NY to each lip-sync one line from the song to create a diverse cast of individuals threaded together with the same sentiment: “I lost something”. The song, originally about NYC, became an anthem for us in Woodstock as we’ve experienced so much change in class, culture, and business. Woodstock is quickly evolving and that old, messy, timeless wild that attracted us to the area is disappearing. I shot the video at the last dive bar, now closed and abandoned, that graced Woodstock’s main street. The video features all locals of Woodstock, most of them my dearest friends, as an almost anthropological project to preserve and document this fading era of people and place”.
‘How A Stranger Is Made’ follows up Mojica’s first studio album ‘Wholesome’, released on August 2016 after two years of touring with the avant-garde cello band Rasputina. He toured this album, which features his unique style of live looped beatboxing and rich vocal harmonies, both as support for Rasputina and as a headliner. The album’s limited pressing sold out quite quickly and now is only available digitally.
A pianist and vocalist now based in Woodstock, New York, Mojica began developing his unique musical style in the crowded apartments and crumbling theaters of NYC’s East Village. In 2012, he moved upstate to the mountains of the Hudson Valley, where he’s become renowned for both his holistic healing work, as well as his musical compositions.
Piano-based, his songs blend his 3+ octave vocal range to create choir-like textures, as well as utilizing unusual character voices and harmonies that explore androgyny, spirituality, and unorthodox male identity. Mojica’s music and sound esthetic is inspired by Leonard Cohen, Tori Amos, Patti Smith, Joanna Newsom, and Kate Bush.
The scenario, filming, and direction for this video were all handled by Mojica himself. Video editing was performed by Joel Patterson at Mountaintop Studios in Petersburgh, NY. The accompanying video was written, filmed and directed by Kelly Merchant with editing and compositing by Fredo Viola. Merchant also took the photo for the cover artwork, while Viola designed it.
SOURCE: Official Bio
“Perfect for those who enjoy the visceral sound of Bjork, the hypnotic vocals of Thom Yorke and looking for something new in the scene”
– Music Existence“Mojica’s music requires refined aesthetics and discernment and is damn near a new wrinkle in the sonic territory”
– Mark S. Tucker“Convincing delivery, it seems he is speaking right to the listener in the same way Tori Amos, Devendra Banhart, Kate Bush and Ani DiFranco manage to. His muse has obviously led him into some deeply personal, vulnerable places. Through his music, Mojica radiates creative joy, making this a thoroughly enjoyable listen”
– Big Takeover Magazine“Luis Mojica’s vocals really are an instrument unto themselves and the pinnacle of what makes this album a jewel among the thistles”
– Band Blurb“The harmonies are exceptional. From the opera style to the beatboxing. I haven’t been this impressed this much with vocal harmonies since I heard Fleet Foxes”
– No More Division“Mojica’s voice is an instrument in itself; it soars as he sings and his beats are like bullets puncturing through the track”
– Mookychic
LINKS:
http://www.luismojica.com
https://www.facebook.com/luismojicamusic
https://luismojica.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/luis.mojica.music
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl-Z3peOvHwczSYyv4J-IVA/videos
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/luis-mojica/763703531
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0kqaE6tmzfgC4hk6CKXlr7
