DOPEST Video of the Day: "Heart to Heart" by Y the Ghost
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After being discovered by and invited to join the "Beyond Music" project co-founded by Tina Turner in early 2021 – and then winning an award for one of the two joint collaborations he took part in with musicians from around the globe the same year – Jacoby Elliott now returns to Y the Ghost (his solo music project) with a brand new single and music video entitled “Heart to Heart”, which we’ve designated as our DOPEST Video of the Day.
Says Elliott, “It’s about the desire for authentic, loving communication in a relationship on the brink of disintegrating. What started as a song about a relationship with one person evolved into a song that's more broadly about my relationship with the world as well as the relationship between internal parts of me that had become estranged from each other.” Sonic elements in the production (also undertaken by Elliott) evoke feelings of isolation, artifice, and longing in the form of etheric vocoders and the utilization of negative space within the dynamics by leaving room for quiet, meditative stillness in between methodically placed rhythmic percussion and drums inspired by 80s/90s Pop and R&B. Vocals are very much at the forefront with melodies and lyrics being the driving forces of the song.
The new single follows the prior release of “Is That Too Deep?” in March earlier this year. The music video was selected and screened at Short Circuit Film Festival based in Colorado, with the song reaching number one worldwide under the Pop genre of SubmitHub’s Hot or Not community rating system for independent musicians and labels. Batel Tamiet (known by her solo music moniker Honnéte) co-starred in the video, as well as in the upcoming video for “Heart to Heart.”
In early 2021, he received an email from Switzerland inviting him to join “Beyond Music,” a global music initiative co-founded by Tina Turner and Regula Curti which aims to “collaborate and jointly develop innovative pieces of music across cultures and genres.” As of 2020, there were around 450 musicians on the platform worldwide. Members partake in a yearly album project overseen by a renowned producer (one previously being Grammy-winning Larry Klein). Selected collaborations are reproduced and included in the album release under the guidance of this producer, but all musicians can remain on the platform indefinitely and continue participating in the project each year after joining.
Elliott took part in two collaborations this year for the album project revolving around the theme of “conflict,” which was overseen by multi-Grammy winners Michael League and Bill Laurence of the jazz and funk collective Snarky Puppy. Although his collaborations weren’t selected for the album this year, the platform decided to award one song entitled “Find Us (Beyond),” a joint collaboration with Kate Northrop (Switzerland) and Elisa Giannina van den Berg (Italy/Netherlands), with pure prize money as an honored submission. Beyond Music’s statement reads, "Jacoby, Kate and Elisa have created a song that could not have better expressed the essence of Beyond Music. ‘Find us, beyond heavy weapons, meet us there, we'll be waiting’ Jacoby sings over a slowly rising wave of synthesizers, while Kate tenderly plucks her harp. Beyond - that's where we want to transport the listener with Beyond Music. Beyond isolation and exclusion, where music ultimately unfolds its power of unification. This place is Beyond Music, and ‘Find Us (Beyond)’ soundtracks this notion magnificently” (Regula Curti, Founder & Konstanze Wiedemann, CEO Beyond Music).
Watch “Heart to Heart”, our DOPEST Video of the Day, right now, stream it on your preferred music service and connect with him on his website and social media.
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