Even when they’re brief and fleeting, real love affairs often endure through rose-tinted memories and artefacts of fading ephemera: candid polaroid photos, elegantly penned handwritten letters, a scent lingering on an item of clothing. On ‘Love Letter,’ the Tamaki Mākaurau-based Chinese-New Zealand singer, musician, and visual artist Crystal Chen passionately implores a lover to write to her. In the process, she evokes a silky smooth atmosphere as vivid and warmly coloured as her analog 35mm and medium format film photography.
Co-written, played, recorded, and produced by Kenny Sterling (Mānuka Recordings), ‘Love Letter’ is an intoxicating melange of jazz, post-disco, R&B, and modern soul that draws emotional and stylistic influences from 80s British sophisti-pop, New York’s late 90s/early 2000s Soulquarian movement and the romantic melodies and drifting dreamscapes of the eternal queen of Asian Pop, the late great Teresa Teng. Featuring Julien Dyne on Congas and Chris Manning on Trumpet, ‘Love Letter’ points towards an accompanying Shanghai-inspired music video and several forthcoming projects, including an album, EP, and a live recording session.
Music video out on the 1st of March
credits
released February 14, 2024
Kenny Sterling
Producer
Drums
Electric Guitar
Electric Bass
Electric Piano
Percussion
Mixing Engineer
Recording Engineer
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