J. Albert

Flushing, USA

Salis

ElectronicAmbient

Behind the Music

Normally when I make music, I’m trying to craft something that sounds cool. I’m flexing a discipline of production that I’m familiar with. The Outlaw Ocean Music Project required me to be much more intentional and critical, fully digesting all of the information presented in the book and videos before aligning it into sentiments that would hit home for listeners. Growing up in Florida, I’ve lived near the ocean for a large part of my life and therefore I have much respect for it. After reading and consuming parts of The Outlaw Ocean, I still have that respect for the ocean but I’m also aware of the consumerism that’s taken over this vast expanse of water, and it was important for me to communicate both of those ideas in the music. It was exciting and a completely different flow. It was stimulating, and one of the best parts about working on the project. 

Music is an intrinsic and primitive form of intentional storytelling. We as humans naturally interpret and ascribe meaning to the things we consume. I was intentional in crafting a body of work rich in meaning. The process and the result felt incredibly informed and original, but also familiar and organic to me. 

J. Albert
About J. Albert

J. Albert is the primary alias of Jiovanni Nadal, a Florida native based in NYC who makes music that ranges from club to ambient to R&B.
While his early releases on labels like Black Opal and 1080p fell squarely into the category of house music, recent records for The Trilogy Tapes and Hypercolour have offered innovative, genre-agnostic club tracks that experiment with garage and jungle to great effect.
Over the past two years, he’s expanded his creative reach even further with the R&B-influenced Jio alias, and through several self-released ambient albums such as “my rave ended yours just began” and “Young American Artist.”

Winner of the 2021 Scripps Howard Award for Excellence in Innovation in Journalism

The Journalism behind the Music

All music in this project is based on The Outlaw Ocean, a New York Times Best-Selling book by Ian Urbina that chronicles lawlessness at sea around the world. This reporting touches on a diversity of abuses ranging from illegal and overfishing, arms trafficking at sea, human slavery, gun running, intentional dumping, murder of stowaways, thievery of ships and other topics.

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