Emanuel has the power to shift moods with his stunning debut EP Session 1: Disillusion, out now via Universal Music Canada. You are led on an intoxicating journey during the three tracks and a remix. Emanuel’s music goes beyond beauty with malleable vocals, airy, ambient soundscapes, and textured instrumentals. He wrote the EP himself and themes cover personal reflections and experiences from sex, drugs, and relationships.

“I feel I need you to breathe”

Previously released debut single Need You has an elegant piano introduction, with raspy, heartfelt vocals. It seeps into your very core. The music video was created from personal submissions that were captured during self-isolation. The visuals were directed by Matt Di Carlo and Idris Elba was the Executive Producer.

Thought It’d Be Easy is about relationship strifes where Emanuel can’t get this girl off his mind even though he is intimate with someone else. It is a hypnotically structured song which heightens your senses. It shows his vulnerable side and luxurious instrumentals elevate the song.

“I thought it’d be easy to fuck someone else but I’m fucking this girl and I’m thinking of you”

Addiction shows a different side to Emanuel and despite featuring the airy feel it also a funky beat. It is about getting high and this feeling is reflected in the spacious harmonies and warm soundscape.

The EP rounds off with The Need You remix which is less stripped back and melancholic than the original and displays finger-snapping, jazz-inflected instrumentals with soaring strings.

On releasing Session 1: Disillusion today, Emanuel comments, “Debuting to the world on Juneteenth, a symbolic day in the celebration of freedom and emancipation for all enslaved Blacks in America, immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of love, hope and healing as the world shifts right before our very eyes.”

Emanuel’s EP is the first installment of Alt Therapy and it is not just a cathartic release for him as an artist but also touches listeners deep with emotions they didn’t even know they had. 

“Alt Therapy. It represents so many things. It is healing. Healing for those things in the past that would have us in bondage, in depression, in sadness. Those voices that told us we weren’t important. It’s gratification for the yearning in our hearts to do something great for the people of this world.”  – Emanuel

Steeped in emotion with our thoughts on a global pandemic, disillusionment, and race equality, Emanuel’s Session 1: Disillusion is truly a sign of the times.