As part of a BBC Radio 1 residency mix, James Blake unveiled a poignant cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence.†“When Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel wrote this, they said … it was about the breakdown of communication,†Blake explained on Thursday. “One New Year’s Eve I had a friend of mine sadly pass away, and previous to that, the things he had been saying to me sounded like an attempt to reach out to people. I thought that after that happened this seemed to be the only song that could represent how I felt at the time.†The cover (dedicated to his friend) speaks for itself.
(Listen to the whole BBC broadcast, which also featured conversations with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and roughly two hours of experimental music, here.)