Singer/songwriter Anjimile Chithambo, known simply as Anjimile (pronounced “ann-JIM-uh-lee”), has announced Reunion (May 7, Father/Daughter), a three-track EP that puts an expanded orchestral spin on selections from their acclaimed 2020 debut LP Giver Taker. Lead single “In Your Eyes” (Reflection) features Jay Som, who sings on the EP along with SASAMI and Lomelda.
“I am very honored to be a part of Anjimile’s orchestral EP,” says Jay Som (Melina Duterte) in a statement. “Their album Giver Taker is so beautiful and expansive and every time I listen I feel like I’ve entered a different world. This track is one of my favs on their record, I love when artists rework their own songs with an orchestral arrangement.”
In place of the original album version’s fingerpicked acoustic guitar and hand percussion, “In Your Eyes” (Reflection) ramps up the intensity via dramatic, keening strings and Duterte’s smooth, smoky vocals, which complicate the song’s point of view. Anjimile and their Giver Taker collaborator Justine Bowe (Photocomfort) join their voices with Duterte’s in the choruses, creating a transfixing, emotive tangle of vocal tones.
Bowe sings on all three Reunion tracks, while composer Daniel Hart (St. Vincent, Polyphonic Spree, Pete’s Dragon, A Ghost Story) wrote and recorded the EP’s string section, arranging its orchestral reworks. “Giver Taker is one of my favorite albums of 2020, so I was thrilled to be asked to contribute a little something to this EP,” says Hart. “And when I dug into Jimi’s writing further, figuring out how best to translate it for strings, what I found was a group of songs bursting with joy and passion and good questions and heartache. Then the work was easy, because it was so much fun to do.”
“The most exciting part of this project for me was giving the participating artists free reign to fuck around with my songs and make them into something purely collaborative, something special, and something new,” says Anjimile. “When Daniel sent me his arrangements, they knocked me on my ass. They’re so beautiful and so interesting, and every guest vocalist on this record creates such a beautiful new world and a distinctive sonic palette. It’s been really fun and exciting to see my tunes re-interpreted, re-imagined and reconstructed by such powerful musicians.”
Listen to “In Your Eyes” below and find the details of Reunion further down.
Reunion EP Tracklist:
1. In Your Eyes (Reflection) – Anjimile, Jay Som
2. Maker (Refraction) – Anjimile, SASAMI
3. 1978 (Reunion) – Anjimile, Lomelda
Reunion EP Art:
