Citizen Records kicks off 2023 by inviting Endrik Schroeder and Stroblights to remix Together Again, one of the highlights of John Lord Fonda’s last album, Walk Again. Fonda also pitches in, delivering a daring ambient version of the track.
With John Lord Fonda adding keyboards to revisit his own track, it becomes a softer, slower, more ethereal affair. The bass and kick are gone, leaving room for melody and a crackly piano revving up in the background.
Fonda has picked up his flute again, an instrument he swapped for synths after many years of music studies, and it’s a perfect fit! Now a widescreen production, the melancholia and fragility of Together Again is more palpable than ever.
In the hands of Stroblights, a duo from Dijon formed in 2023 by Martin Lacaille (Attend) et Gabriel Afathi (half of The George Kaplan Conspiracy), Together Again has its best sneakers on and is ready to hit the clubs.
Somewhere between electronica, melodic techno and disco, Stroblights give the track a thorough going over, adding a killer bassline while still keeping a spaced out vibe.
Hailing from Grenoble in the southeast of France, Endrik Schroeder is the guest of honour on this project. Schroeder takes Together Again into Italo Disco territory by way of EDM, using a clipped kick drum and cosmic waves of sound while keeping the track’s vaporous, mysterious essence.
For the visuals, director and motion designer Raphaël Bluzet (whose work has won prizes at HollyShorts in Hollywood and Aesthetica in England, plus a special mention at the Cannes Short Film Festival) accompanies the original version with elegance and a sense of poetry.
Mixing filmed images with animation, the video for Together Again explores body language and the rich gamut of emotions that result from a tumultuous, passionate love affair, changing with time and memory.
