We Speak Music
Phonseca release highly anticipated sophomore album ‘Everything Lasts Forever’ and joyous new electro-pop single ‘English Night’!
Five years after their debut album ‘Between A Dream’, Bristol synthpop duo Phonseca return with ‘Everything Lasts Forever’, an album that sparkles and shimmers.
‘Between A Dream’ was championed in the UK on BBC Radio 6 Music by both Gideon Coe and Steve Lamacq. With Steve Lamacq featuring it in his “Recommends” show. It also picked up lots of airplay and excellent reviews around the world. ‘Everything Lasts Forever’ is a joyous, upbeat record which picks up where ‘Between A Dream’ left off and unashamedly embraces more of a synth pop feel than its acclaimed predecessor.
Phonseca brings together Bristol’s much respected keys/synth player Matthew O’Connor and radiant Swedish vocalist Kristina Sheppard. Matthew’s classical piano training has an influence on his work. In addition to Phonseca, he has composed Library Music where his work has been synched on primetime TV like BBC1’s – The One Show, Channel 5 programs and National TV in most of Europe. This was the catalyst for first writing with Kristina, initially working on songs for a Disney project which followed a chance meeting at a wedding fayre, where they had stalls directly opposite each other. Since its release, the pair have spent the past few years promoting the debut album while writing/recording ‘Everything Lasts Forever’, which is now ready for release via Old Bad Habits Label.
‘Everything Lasts Forever’ happily takes its inspiration from the likes of New Order, The Beloved, Chromatics, The xx, Robyn, Pet Shop Boys and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The range of Kristina’s voice perfectly captures the variety of feelings that the lyrics portray. Putting herself at the centre of songs which cover Love, Grief, Clubbing and Internationalism. Also included is their take, on timeless pop classic Downtown.
In addition to the vocal tracks, there are a number of ambient/soundtrack inspired instrumentals, completing a varied yet balanced album of effervescent, nocturnal and emotive pop music. The album ends with the poignant, solo piano track ‘Our Star’, allowing you to pause, and reflect on things.
On the album, O’Connor states, “I realised recently that almost all of these tunes have a nocturnal element to them in one form or another. There is definitely a thread of pure optimism too, even in their bleakest moments, running through them and they lend the album its title. Everything Lasts Forever, comes from the theory that when something dies, it doesn’t end there, it’s atoms and energy carry on, long after, until the stars go out.”
Alongisde the album release, Phonseca also release new single ‘English Night’ today with an accompanying video. ‘English Night’ is a joyous upbeat electro-pop track that is laced with positive synth moods and soaring uplifting vocals.
On ‘English Night’, O’Connor states, “English Night is the most optimistic song we’ve ever written. It is Bizarre Inc meets Sophie Ellis Bexter with a dash of St Etienne. I’ve always wanted to pay some kind of homage to clubland as it has inspired me so much over the years. The middle section is my favourite part of the entire album, a real hands in the air moment. I can still recall the exact moment Kristina came up with it, jaw dropping, it gets me every time.”
Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.
‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.
The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.
The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:
Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.”
About the track, Michele says, “I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.
We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.”
The album and full-length film will be released on the 5th of June on Monotreme Records.
Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.
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