Strolling through the twilight of an abandoned mega city, where the air vibrates with the hushed, anticipatory white noise of liminal space, you may find yourself contemplating the ebb and flow of life and death. In this moment, Holy Waters emerges as a singular soundtrack.
Jacob Allen, the man behind Puma Blue, weaves an album that feels like a personal exchange of whispered confidences amid a silent abyss—an odyssey through the cycles of existence, death, love, and loss. These cycles will feature in Bucharest for the first time as Puma Blue plays Control Club on Friday, May 31.
“Death nestles like a sweet creature at the heart of Holy Waters,” proclaims the album’s description, and indeed, the weighty theme of mortality saturates each track. But this is not a somber contemplation on the end of life. Instead, it is a nuanced exploration of life’s cyclical nature, where melancholy and serenity dance an intimate, perhaps mystical, tango.
From the first notes of Falling Down, you are drawn into Allen’s world. The saxophone, accompanied by delicate and powerful vocals, feels like a distant, comforting whisper through the undulated topography of emotional turmoil. It’s as if drifting through a primordial forest, guided by the music’s otherworldly presence through a fog-laden dawn.