SHOLTO — Smooth Sailing (ft. Phoebe Coco)
Endorsed by the likes of Gilles Peterson and known for his cinematic, groove-rooted soundscapes, SHOLTO returns with his latest single 'Smooth Sailing', out today via DeepMatter Records. The track offers a rare vocal moment in SHOLTO’s discography, featuring long-time collaborator Phoebe Coco, whose voice threads throughout the forthcoming album ‘The Sirens’.
Following the sprawling double album Letting Go of Forever (2024), SHOLTO’s third album in as many years finds him turning inward, exploring themes of duality, temptation, and emotional dislocation. Described by SHOLTO as “blurring grief with groove, seduction and surrender”, The Sirens flips his trademark ethereal textures into something darker and more emotionally unflinching.
Recorded once again in the creative hub of SHOLTO’s SFJ studio in Hackney, the album reunites a cast of trusted collaborators including bassist Syd Kemp, string arranger Clementine Brown, and harpist Rachel Horton Kitchlew. The result is a cohesive sound world that balances cinematic richness with intimate detail.
On 'Smooth Sailing', Phoebe Coco’s tender vocal takes center stage, unfolding as a meditation on love’s quiet complexities. SHOLTO shares:
“Smooth Sailing moves like a half-remembered dream - clouds that mimic mountains, soft voices swaddling you whilst floating across an endless sea. It reflects on love, and the way stillness can tremble, how even ease can ask something of us. A gentle unravelling of the myth that calm means simple - the quiet complexities of connection, anchored by the line ‘today the clouds looked like mountains, why don’t we climb them’.”
The single follows August’s 'Persephone’s Perception', which set up the mythological themes of The Sirens, reimagining Persephone’s descent to Queen of the Underworld as an act of choice rather than fate. Across the record’s 12 tracks, SHOLTO channels allegory and the carnivalesque to navigate emotional turbulence, trading shimmering dreamscapes for darker, unresolved resonances that still hold beauty.
Oscar ‘SHOLTO’ Robertson has become a key figure in the modern resurgence of cinematic psychedelia and library-inspired jazz, standing alongside the likes of Surprise Chef, Sven Wunder, and The Cinematic Orchestra. His work nods to greats like Piero Umiliani and David Axelrod while building a unique niche that has won support from Huey Morgan, Deb Grant (BBC 6 Music), Jamie Cullum (BBCR2), Jyoty (Rinse FM), and Tony Minvielle (Jazz FM). Having worked with the likes of Nick Waterhouse, Inflo, and Dan Carey, and toured with Lady Wray and Baxter Dury, SHOLTO has carved out a reputation as one of the UK’s most forward-thinking composer-producers.
