«Love is an attempt to rewrite the past while the future pretends not to notice.» I always thought that soundtrack composers were invisible. They conduct our emotions from the shadow of the movie screen. They know which note to mix into someone else’s tears. Which acoustic pause to place before someone else’s kiss. But what happens when a composer suddenly realizes: the plot falling apart is his own? For Jiawei Shen, the answer came in the form of the single “Palace Pixels.” At first I thought: well, here’s another breakup track. I was wrong. This is a song about trying to win back a love – one he destroyed himself, after six years together.
Jiawei Shen usually writes music for other people’s stories – film, television. But with “Palace Pixels” – the first single from the upcoming album “The Pillow Book” – for the first time he had to write music for his own life. And instead of a heavy, dark elegy, he chose bright nostalgia. He filled the score with the warmth of the years lived together. For this, bossa nova fit perfectly. The melody sounds cinematic. As if it’s edited frame by frame – it feels like somewhere backstage, filming is still going on. A sensual frame intensified by pulsing guitars, orchestral strings, barely perceptible electronics, and refined brass.
Jiawei Shen wrote the arrangements himself. He sang backing vocals himself and played the alto saxophone part. After the breakup, he endlessly scrolled through photos and videos on his phone – reliving those six years all over again. These very recordings became the basis for the official video. With deliberate retro blur. Because, as Jiawei Shen himself says, that’s how memories live – blurred, in fragments, but very vivid. He admits that “Palace Pixels” is the most personal and most candid music he has ever released.
Will the song bring back his beloved – that’s not for me to predict. But one thing I know for certain: “Palace Pixels” will resonate with anyone who has ever scrolled through their phone gallery at midnight, desperately wishing to step back – right into an old video.
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