Pale Jay

Bewilderment - the feeling of being perplexed and confused - is the inspiration behind Pale Jay's new album. It's a soulful exploration of a family's gradual disintegration due to years of avoidance and miscommunication. During this difficult time, Pale Jay began to question the stories he had always lived with and re-examined his identity. The resulting work, 'Bewilderment' is a seamless blend of Pale Jay’s trademark dusty soul, slow disco, and Afrobeat, with string arrangements by Raven Bush adding an extra layer of magic to the beat-heavy productions.

After a devastating bicycle crash Pale Jay finds himself in the emergency room awaiting surgery. To take his mind off the procedure the doctors ask if he wants to listen to music – John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ will be playing in his headphones. Heavily sedated, between dream and reality, Coltrane’s classic record soothes Pale Jay and plants the seed of ‘The Celestial Suite’: a body of work rooted in the unconscious, displaying a deep connection between Pale Jay and his musical guides such as Donny Hathaway, J Dilla and Khruangbin. Pale Jay’s self-produced debut EP ‘The Celestial Suite’ showcases his fragile falsetto floating over dusty beats and serene strings glued together by timeless arrangements.