Full disclosure: I’ve never been partial to “inspirational” music. It’s not that I don’t want to be inspired, or that I don’t need inspiration. I think I just feel kind of suspicious with too much sunshine, like it’s too good to be true in a world full of shadows.
But this song by JPSon inspires in a decidedly un-flaky manner. The songwriting and experience here with his newest single Breathe are truly authentic. I’m fast-tracking it onto my personal morning playlist. After spending some time with this song, I actually feel a bit better about the world and my place in it. That’s worth a lot in the world we find ourselves living in right now.
Ten years of travelling the world seem to bring a certain energy to the music of JPson. Leaving Cape Town, South Africa to explore his father’s Swiss heritage, musician JPson ‘s planned 10-month excursion to Europe became a ten-year journey of experiencing the world and allowing his reflections to overflow into his songwriting. I can hear it in the music, I think.
JPson‘s newest folk single Breathe is an invitation into an open space. It might be described as an uptempo mindfulness experience, embedded in bright, vibrant acoustic guitar lines and a pulsating bassline. Warm percussion and gentle, fluidly textured vocal harmonies are woven in at just the right time and in just the right measure. The lyrics, along with JPson’s style of vocal delivery, invite introspection; inwardness. The whole effect is to draw body into soul, somehow, in the most natural and effortless way. You don’t even realize it’s happening. The rhythmic cadence of the lyrics is strangely both soothing and energizing.
I’m rolling down this road
With thoughts strong and bold…
Will we ever find peace in the darkness
and will we ever see truth ?
And will we ever break away
from thoughtless actions and abuse?
Since 2017 JPson has released 4 EPs (Coming Home, Children of the Light and A Whole New Road), and his newest Wolves at War (September 2021). Described as “Fresh Folk”–it is just that and a little bit more. Love this tune and what it offers to the human soul.
