Novo Amor goes on a journey and takes you with him. On Birthplace, the chord progressions and the changing dynamics make you feel as if you are following right behind, step by step, in admiration. Crescendos build you up to pull you back down again, leaving you fulfilled and pensive at the same time. He brings you to consider your own potential to be as great as the ideals he is singing about.

Novo Amor’s effortless voice calls your attention and puts you in a trance; now and then the short intervals of silence pull you out of it. He is in harmony with the juxtaposing emotions behind his music: lost but hopeful, tired but grateful, proud and lonesome. You feel as if he is speaking only to you, yet the emotions behind those words seem more meaningful than the words themselves.

And inevitably, you too become lost in far-away, dreamy thoughts.

Gentle guitar and piano layers frequently form the foundation for the accompaniment, while strings and synthesizers add depth, beautifully intertwining with his voice. The percussion gives a sense of movement and purpose, though its absence is likewise powerful in defusing the anticipation for what lays ahead.

This album could be a soundtrack to a spectacular love story, with all its highs and lows. One just like the films, that we all relate to and wish for. This is music to fall in love with. Music to plan your life to. Music to fall asleep to.

In the end, a new love has been found. Unexpectedly. Novo Amor.

Luca Rago

Header image via Novo Amor