It's been exactly a year since the tragic passing of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Matthew E. White has penned a tribute track called "Tranquility." The song appears on the upcoming album Fresh Blood, and it's available to hear today.
It's a mournful ballad that's filled with swooping orchestrations and deep, melancholic farewells to a lost friend. It addresses Hoffman's death very directly with a reference to "65 bags of heroin," and the middle portion of the arrangement evokes the turmoil with stormy guitar fuzz.
White wrote in a statement:
A year ago today we lost Philip Seymour Hoffman. I didn't know Philip, but I had watched everything he did for 15 years. To me, he was everything one could ever want to be in an artist, and although I am no actor I was much more of a student than a fan. Very soon after his death it became crystal clear to me that I wanted to try very hard and write a song for him. He deserved something from me, something that honoured him, and showed how grateful I was for all he had given. His death was immensely sad and as deaths such as these go, leaves us crushed that a life so bright has been dimmed. There is a duality in these circumstances, it's a place where we find darkness in the light, but more powerfully, we find light in the darkness. I tried to find music that felt the same.
Hear it below. Fresh Blood is due out on March 10 on Domino.
It's a mournful ballad that's filled with swooping orchestrations and deep, melancholic farewells to a lost friend. It addresses Hoffman's death very directly with a reference to "65 bags of heroin," and the middle portion of the arrangement evokes the turmoil with stormy guitar fuzz.
White wrote in a statement:
A year ago today we lost Philip Seymour Hoffman. I didn't know Philip, but I had watched everything he did for 15 years. To me, he was everything one could ever want to be in an artist, and although I am no actor I was much more of a student than a fan. Very soon after his death it became crystal clear to me that I wanted to try very hard and write a song for him. He deserved something from me, something that honoured him, and showed how grateful I was for all he had given. His death was immensely sad and as deaths such as these go, leaves us crushed that a life so bright has been dimmed. There is a duality in these circumstances, it's a place where we find darkness in the light, but more powerfully, we find light in the darkness. I tried to find music that felt the same.
Hear it below. Fresh Blood is due out on March 10 on Domino.
