Jai is out on Slow Dance on September 15
Jai was written and produced by Uma and Luke Bower, mixed by Salpa (AKA Luke Bower) and Mastered by Kevin Tuffy. “Jai is a collection of ideas and memories set to sound for my friends to wear on their ears as eclectic jewelry”, says the Girona based artist
“It is a project full of love, playfulness and the joy of the mundane. Following in the steps of my first and second ep’s introverted nature, Jai is a deeper dive into some of the things that shaped who I am today.”
Uma has been teasing the record since last year and 2023 has seen her preview the excellent singles ‘Send Me Off’, ‘Filthy Rich’, ‘Tārā’ and ‘Muay Thai’.
The mixtape captures the mood of turning nostalgia for the past into nostalgia for the present as Uma weaves early memories with inner-child wisdom and reflections on parental advice. She explores the parallels she finds between her itinerant life as a professional artist and the borderless, romantic and creative upbringing that her parents blessed her with, both at Can Obert and across three continents.
‘Can Obert’ – or The Open House – was in fact a creation of Uma’s British mother, a performance artist and festival organizer who developed a community hub of artists and writers around Uma’s childhood home.
Uma has lived and traveled across the globe, as her parents lived long-distance for most of her youth. She spent a lot of time with her father Tew, who lived in Bangkok—where he was born and where he worked for a nonprofit hospice and orphanage—whilst Uma’s mother’s work provided her with long stints in Canada and Greenland. Uma enrolled in York University to study contemporary classical music and moved back to Barcelona where after some experimentation, decided to launch her version of Can Obert.
Now, the name refers to Uma’s Barcelona home studio, Can Obert, where she hosts writing residencies and write and produce for themselves and other artists. Nilüfer Yanya and Rosie Lowe being examples of the hub’s guests. It is also where Jai was recorded.
Uma’s first work saw her channeling cult folk artists Linda Perhacs, Josephine Foster and Sybille Baier alongside classical Spanish guitar music. She has put out two EP’s; 2020’s debut EP Bel-li and 2021’s followup The Moth and the Dove, which was recorded during lockdown, also at Can Obert, with Bower jointly producing. On release, it caught the attention of So Young, Clash, Loud & Quiet, The Needle Drop, DIY, The Line of Best Fit, Metal Mag and Gigwise. To date, her entire corpus has clocked over 8 million Spotify streams.
Her next mixtape is both an extension of her tinderbox chemistry with Bower at Can Obert, and a journey deeper into her maturing sound. She now says she’s in a space where she’s trusting her instincts and her idiosyncrasies more than ever. Uma is being championed by 6 Music’s Mary Ann Hobbs and on Radio 1 as Jack Saunders’ Future Artists. She was also interviewed last month by Ben Cardew (Pitchfork, Guardian) for his Line Noise Radio Show on Primavera Radio.
Having sold out two consecutive nights at Servant Jazz Quarters in April, Uma will tour in the UK and EU supporting Puma Blue before setting off on her own headline tour in October. ‘Cicadas’ is out now, and the mixtape Jai, Uma’s first full length, comes out on September 15 on Slow Dance. Preorder it here.
