Melodic electronica virtuoso Shallou dives deep on his latest project, an emotive, five-track EP titled The Long Way Home. Featuring soul-searching sonics, ethereal vocals and gently-thumping bass beats, it acts as the light at the end of a long tunnel for Shallou, who overcame his recent struggles with mental health—including a diagnosis with obsessive–compulsive disorder—to reconnect with his creative self.
Out now via FADER Label, The Long Way Home picks up this story with hopeful opening ballad “Corners.” The atmospheric melodic house piece arose when Shallou finally found hope “coursing through [his] veins again,” he wrote in a press release. “I could finally clear the haze and write about the feelings I had experienced during the pandemic and continue to experience.”
A prismatic saxophone solo by Alex Bone transitions “Corners” into the previously released “High Tide,” exploring a magical sense of calm with bright synths and delicately reverberating vocals. The Elderbrook-assisted “Heartaches” also makes an appearance alongside tropical house single “Here,” both previously released.
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Bringing the project together is its pinnacle piece, “Pacifica,” an orchestral ballad inspired by a San Francisco town where Shallou felt “true inner peace.” The past year “felt like I was out at sea, trying to paddle back (from) the isolation of quarantine and the slow degradation of society and nature,” Shallou described. Eventually, he found his memories of Pacifica and the music he was creating to be a mental escape from this anxiety: “this sort of ‘holy land,’ a place where I can relax and just feel safe again.”
“I think The Long Way Home EP bears a hopeful theme of getting through the worst times,” Shallou continued. “Visually, the artworks resemble a beacon of light through the haze, guiding you home through uncertain waters.”
To celebrate the release of The Long Way Home, Shallou has now announced an official remix contest that will feature the winner on his upcoming remix package, due in 2022 on FADER Label. Select runner-ups will be posted to Shallou’s SoundCloud and YouTube. You can enter here and watch Shallou’s live performance of “Heartaches” below.
FOLLOW SHALLOU:
Facebook: facebook.com/shalloumusic
Twitter: twitter.com/shalloumusic
Instagram: instagram.com/shalloumusic
Spotify: spoti.fi/3l9N3mQ
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