Back with exceptional new release ‘Utopia’, Jihae is going from strength to strength. The track is self-produced, mixed by Dave Harrington (Darkside), with Didi Gutman (Brazilian Girls) on synth and bass, Shahzad Ismaily on piano and beats, Avi Bortnick on guitar and Susan Mandel on cello.
Jihae hopes that the song’s message of love and unity can help calm the current climate of hate and division. She says about the accompanying video: “The video represents my internal journey over the past year. The long process of rewrites to make the song uplifting mirrored my determination to find inner peace. It’s not easy to face our reality without anger, frustration and despair. I made the choice to stop being consumed by these emotions and focus on how I can contribute to healing our planet and helping people in these desperate times. We’re wired to seek euphoria externally, running away from ourselves to find meaning and fill the void when sages, saints and scholars throughout history have shown us that all the wisdom, peace and light can be found within through meditation and prayer. I had shot with Paola before and have always admired her ability to capture her subject’s essence in raw moments.”
Cinematographer Jeffrey Kim notes, “From the very first listen, I was struck by the beauty of the track. It transported me to a calm and hopeful space which felt comforting and needed during in these turbulent times in which we are living. Through Paola’s vision, we captured Jihae in remote locations to express this idea of nature being at once vast and mysterious yet beautiful and utopia being a state of being which one must actively progress towards.”
