Acclaimed producer Rob (film music composer and touring member of the band Phoenix)and engineer Jack Lahana (2019 Latin Grammy Award Winner for Best Engineered Album) have teamed up for a collection of songs, resulting in the project SUMMERCAMP, set for release in early 2021 via Pan European Recording/Hippocampus. Having known each other for over two decades, the pair today released the first track from the collection, “Haute Saison,” featuring vocals by Gordon Tracks & Giorgio Poi. 

With the song’s release comes a Natalie Portman-directed video starring Quannah Chasinghorse & D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai. The music video follows two suited strangers searching for each other through a crowded beach, meeting in a euphoric dance circle between beach-goers. The Academy Award-winner made her feature directorial debut in 2015 with A Tale of Love and Darkness and has directed several short films including Eve and New York, I Love You. “Haute Saison” marks her first music video directorial credit.

About the collaboration, Rob said, “About 20 years ago, a cover of ‘Playground Love’ had already reunited us in the studio. Years later, we shared the stage around the world, and often with Giorgio, the coolest of contemporary Italian singers. Finding them as a duo in the studio is an incredible opportunity”

Rob and Jack Lahana met in 2000. Rob was recording his first album, Don’t Kill (2001); Jack was the in-house sound engineer. From that moment on, they started working together. Since Rob’s second album, Satyred Love (2002), and from one studio to the next, they would bring de la musique to life together. Rob writes the tunes, themes, and melodies, while Jack Lahana is behind every sound recording, every intention, catching them on the fly, and enhancing their poetic power through his production techniques.

SUMMERCAMP features artists from all over the world in an invitation to friendship, strong feelings, and utopia. The guests on the record are a natural evolution of the pair’s various circles of artists and friends. Rob has been playing on stage with Phoenix since their inception, and has crossed the world from capitals to festivals. Jack Lahana has worked on a lot of successful albums, notably in South America, where he has become a benchmark producer.

Photo Courtesy: Manuel Obadia-Wills