Eric Hilton, the sonic architect behind Thievery Corporation’s signature globetrotting grooves, returns with two luscious singles that preview his forthcoming solo album ‘Midnight Ragas’.
First up is “Je ne t’aime plus”, a velvet-soft lament sung in French by longtime collaborator Natalia Clavier. The track unfolds like a lost reel from a ’70s French arthouse film, Alain Delon behind the wheel of a gold Ferrari, cigarette smoldering, Côte d’Azur in the rearview mirror. Hilton crafts the perfect soundtrack for such cinematic melancholy: brushed drums, whispering pads, and a rhythm that never demands, only suggests. Clavier’s voice is hauntingly detached, the phrase “I don’t love you anymore” floating like perfume in humid dusk air.
Where “Je ne t’aime plus” is all noirish elegance, “Leave It All” pivots into introspective dub-soul territory. Puma Ptah steps into the spotlight with a vocal that’s pure liquid smoke, think Mezzanine-era Massive Attack crossfaded with Zero 7 on a rainy evening. The beat is a slow-motion sway, built on crisp percussion and pillowy bass. It’s a song for the come-down, not the climax.
“Languages are like different settings on a synth, they have a timbre and delivery that either work or they don’t within a song. Working with Natalia, Puma and Kristina was so great on this project, because I had all these vocal flavors to choose from. There are instrumentals on the record alongside the vocal tracks which vary the mood and pacing. To create an experience, you need to have moments in the song sequence that have a relational mood of some kind, maybe for three tracks, and then slip into another mood. Different languages and singers, changing tempos and sounds – there’s a lot of that on this record, and that’s why it sounds like a compilation album, even though it’s entirely my music,” Eric Hilton.
What’s most striking in both tracks is Hilton’s sense of atmosphere. These aren’t singles in the modern sense, they’re scenes, vignettes, emotional fragments stitched together with analog warmth and quiet sophistication. Midnight Ragas is being framed as a kind of faux-compilation, twelve tracks recorded with different vocalists, languages, and vibes, but unified by Hilton’s dusty vinyl sensibility and cinematic ear. If these two singles are any indication, the album won’t just be a journey, it’ll be a passport to Hilton’s borderless, beat-laced world.
The release is available to buy now via Eric’s store here.
