The Blue Planet Sound

The Blue Planet Sound are a small handsome duo currently producing some of the handsomest yet not so small bossa sounds around.A glowing acoustic sound that is dreamy and mesmerising,classic and modern at the same time. Not hip or cool at all. For 'hip' read 'heart'; for 'cool' read 'intimate'. To see the BPS play live is an experience you'll not easily forget. Two quiet unassuming figures absorbed in weaving a tapestry of intricate sound. Together, PK's swinging syncopated guitar and Sam's multi-colored percussion lay a carpet of grooving latin beat. Over this come Pk's soft nature-boy vocals somewhere between Chet Baker and Joao Gilberto, and Sam's lazy but enchanting alto sax playing. Forget all the clichés. This is no posturing copy of some already marketable fashion. Sure, it has it's reference points and influences. On first listen many are reminded of Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz( but where Astrud wears the trousers) But then add in tinges of Morricone,Sergio Mendes, Paul Desmond,Francis Lai and you're getting closer. They began working together in Paris in the early nineties. From there began a ten year musical odyssey which took them to Southern Europe, South America and the Far East with longer sejourns in Zürich, Barcelona, Tokyo ,Hongkong and Macau. Musically their journey was no less eclectic. From gypsy folk to be-bop,from latin to trip hop PK and Sam managed to use almost any genre as a vehicle for their compositions and imaginative arrangements. But it was in the bossa nova, samba and lounge area that the BPS really came into it's own,augmenting a classic Brazilian repertoire with easy listening pearls of their own and bossa versions of songs by non -Brazilians like Jon Lucien, Roy Ayers and Burt Bacharach, each with that sparkle of Blue Planet magic. Like 'Make Lemonade' and 'Tiny Universe' before it, their new album 'Escape to Paradise' is tastefully trimmed with those inimitable BPS arrangements.The icing on the cake: a flutter of strings; a snatch of organ; dreamy background voices; the insinuation of a sexy scraper, all rocked from underneath by one of PK's irrestible basslines. As with their sister act, James Beige, a recording is more, much more than the sum of it's parts and PK and Sam are craftsmen as much in the producer's seat as in front of the microphone. Listen to clips from the new album now by clicking on the palmtree below!