Gemini Rising (Tensnake, Fiora, Lester Mendez) Announce Debut Album + Drop New Single ‘Just Because’
‘Best Case Life’ is the debut album from Gemini Rising, the synth-pop supergroup comprisingTensnake aka Marco Niemerski, Fiora, and, Lester Mendez. Released 6 September, the 13-track collection includes new single ‘Just Because’ (available from 12 July), and previous singles ‘Morph’ (championed heavily by Jason Bentley at KCRW), and ‘After The Rain’.
Debut releases in 2017, ‘Gemini Rising’ and ‘After The Rain’, were the result of loose collaborations between the three, but due to individual commitments they weren’t able to work together at length until 2018. Late last year, during several months spent together in LA, the band wrote and produced the songs that now form ‘Best Case Life’, with the remaining production work done between there and Berlin over the ensuing months.
The recording sessions in Los Angeles saw them gel as a band and fully realise their sound, as evidenced on the album’s title track, and ’Speed Of Sound’, the first song the trio wrote together in the city. LA itself looms large across the entire album, as both inspiration and influence; with ‘Sunrise Boulevard’ cited as “a love letter to the city” (Fiora).
Early material on ‘Best Case Life’ includes ‘Close Enough To Breathe’, and ‘After The Rain’ – written in Silverlake, and which hints at a darker edge to GR. Continuing a psychogeographical theme, Fiora’s birthplace, Tasmania, also features as the writing backdrop to both the new single, ‘Just Because’, and the influence behind ‘Stars Come To An End’. Amongst the wealth of new material are tracks like ‘The Future’, and ‘Atmospherics’, that see them fully hit that sweet spot between electro pop and new wave. Festival dates and live shows will be announced soob.
Marco/Tensnake is the figure behind iconic house and disco releases ‘In the End (I Want You to Cry)’, ‘Coma Cat’, and ‘Love Sublime’; and his milestone debut album, Glow, which featured three-time Grammy-winning Stuart Price (AKA Jacques Lu Cont), Nile Rodgers, Jamie Lidell, MNEK, Fiora, and more. He’s remixed the likes of Charlotte Gainsbourg, Cut Copy, Boys Noize, Aloe Blacc, Azari & III, Scissor Sisters, Goldfrapp, Friendly Fires, Little Dragon, Lana Del Rey, Pet Shop Boys, London Grammar, and more.
Singer, songwriter, composer, and producer, Fiora has worked with Armin Van Buuren (Waiting for the Night), Andy C (Heartbeat Loud), Seven Lions (Start Again, Dreamin’), R3hab & MOTi (Up All Night), Tensnake (58 BPM, Love Sublime, See Right Through), Moon Boots (I Want Your Attention), Audiofly, Tale of Us (Six Degrees), Arty (Grand Finale), and many more.
Lester Mendez is a Grammy-award winning record producer and songwriter. His production/writing credits include hits with Shakira, Jewel, Santana, Enrique Iglesias, Nelly Furtado, and others, while his programming, arranging, and remixing credits feature artists such as David Byrne, Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones, and many others.
