Program

So then who is James Blake? We have the misconception that we know the Londoner pretty well because he has based his career on exposing his feelings in his songs; however, it is not so easy to know exactly who we are talking about when we talk about James Blake. Some might say that he is that unconventional pop star that will easily sing a duet in Spanish with Rosalía; others will sustain that he is the distressed crooner who allies with Justin Vernon in a competition to see who has the most exciting falsetto. Is he imagining the future, revisiting the past or connecting both? At this point, the colour of his music, if any at all, remains quite uncertain. There are also doubts about whether he is an urban or a bedroom beats producer. What’s more, is he a producer, a pianist or a singer? Perhaps he is actually a rapper, despite not looking like one: there must be some truth in it if he has collaborated with Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, Vince Staples, Travis Scott and André 3000. So then again, who is James Blake? Where’s the catch?

The catch, if any, he has been been perfecting it in record time. He has managed to create not a single persona for James Blake: he has gone way beyond his own limits. Yesterday he was yet another piece in the post-dubstep puzzle he formed with some of his mates, such as Mount Kimbie or Joy Orbison, whereas today he can say that he was recruited by Beyoncé for her iconic Lemonade. A lifetime condensed in ten years of growth in parallel to Primavera Sound. 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2019: he already has four visits to the festival in his resumé. Four are as well the works he has launched so far. His most recent one, Assume Form, was published last January to complete a series of albums that might not have shed any new light on who James Blake really is… but it has indeed contributed to defining the sound of this decade that is about to end and has not seen him ever take a false step.