Mandoki Soulmates, who include amongst them, UK artists Ian Anderson, Nick van Eade and John Helliwell, will launch a cinematic video for their new single ‘The Wanderer’ on 13th November. This will be followed later on by additional music videos and a full concert video recorded live during the summer tour with 16 cameras and high-end audio.
Also out on 29th November, comes a limited deluxe edition of the album A Memory Of Our Future that will be released on white vinyl, and is available to pre-order now. Again, this album will be produced completely in the analogue domain, and audiophiles have lauded the production quality. The album will also be available on ¼” studio master tape for the ultimate analog audiophile experience.
For bandleader Leslie Mandoki, this album is not just a collection of songs, but a musical manifesto for today’s world. “Every song has a special genesis,” he said, “because it’s not we composers and lyricists who write the songs, it’s life!” Some songs on A Memory Of Our Future clearly have autobiographical echoes. For example, ‘The Wanderer’ reflects Mandoki’s own story and struggles in his youth, his dangerous and adventurous escape as a young musician from the oppression and censorship of Soviet communist dictatorship in Hungary through the Karawanken tunnel (escaping beyond guards with orders to shoot), to freedom and artistic self-realisation. The message is universal across all generations and speaks to everyone who is searching for their path in our crisis-ridden world.
For those wanting to know more about Mandoki’s life experiences and his music, you’d do well to check out the accompanying video here at RAMzine.
Like many other artists – from REM and David Bowie to Beyoncé and Taylor Swift – Leslie Mandoki felt inspired to extend the expression of his creative impulses to the visual realm by taking a leading role in the conceptualisation and creative direction of the music video. “As a child I wanted to be a painter, later a poet. Today I still paint designs for our album artwork and write the lyrics for all our songs.” But his father, a musician himself, recognised Leslie’s potential and steered him towards studying music, not least because his father thought music offered better career opportunities at the time. His final advice to his son was: “Don’t dream your life, live your dream!” With the expansion of his creative expression through the music video for ‘The Wanderer’, Mandoki feels he is following his father’s advice in a special way, because this is exactly the message the song and the video convey to the young protagonist and the younger generation. In this respect, he is coming full circle with ‘The Wanderer’, both artistically and biographically.
Through the end of 2024, Mandoki Soulmates will be releasing more videos for songs from their current album, A Memory Of Our Future. Regular postings on the band’s YouTube channel will include the video for the song ‘I Am Because You Are’, as well as new concert videos.
“The wonderful thing about A Memory Of Our Future and this way of making music is that we can overcome the melancholy of current issues together,” Mandoki commented. “Music also opens our eyes to the future, encourages positive thinking and optimism. That gives us strength and drives us forward.
“Music has always been humanity’s greatest unifier, and now more than ever we need it to unite us Together, across generations—for a common future in a better world.”
A Memory Of Our Future can be ordered here.
