自译 | Jacob Collier 为《Djesse Vol. 4》撰写的真挚动人的制作感受

It's 5: 13 am on March 1st 2024, in Los Angeles, as I write this - at the end of one era, and the beginning of another. Whilst it's impossible to truly put into words how it feels, I figured I'd try my best to piece the story of it together for you, and me, to somehow encapsulate what this moment means to me.

2024 年 3 月 1 日凌晨 5 点 13 分，在洛杉矶，我写下这篇文字——一个时代的终结与另一个时代的开端。虽然此刻的心情难以用语言精准描绘，但我决定尽全力将这一切串联起来，为你们、也为我自己，尽可能地捕捉这一时刻对我意味着什么。

At long last, Djesse Vol. 4 is yours. It's the end of a colossal journey for me, the foundations of which I first dreamed up over six years ago.

终于，《Djesse Vol. 4》属于你们了。这对我来说是一段巨大旅程的终点，而这段旅程的奠基可以追溯到六年前的一个构想。

The year was 2017. I'd recently released my debut album, In My Room, crafted entirely in solitude, and toured in a similar fashion with a one-man-show. I was absorbing a massive amount of change in a short space of time, drinking up an exponentially expanding world-view - and within all of that, there was something on the horizon I distinctly felt I was craving, and that was collaboration; I was RAVENOUS for it.

那是在 2017 年，我刚刚发行了自己的首张专辑《In My Room》。这张专辑完全在孤独中创作，并以类似的“一人秀”形式进行巡演。我在短时间内吸收了大量的变化，世界观急剧扩展，而在这一切之中，我明确感受到自己产生了新的渴望，那就是“合作”；我对它如饥似渴。

Through much dreaming and scheming, an idea began to dawn on me, haunt me, delight me - a vast, collaborative album, in four chapters, colliding all forms of music I love, drenched with my most favourite musical beings from all over the world, friends and heroes alike - recorded across Earth's many corners. It was about as ambitious as I could have dreamed, but I don't recall it feeling outlandish at the time; it simply felt right. So I let it overtake my imagination, and started sketching it out.

历经无数梦幻般的构想与筹划，一个想法开始在我心中萌芽，萦绕着我，给我带来快乐——一张宏大的、分为四章的合作专辑，汇集所有我喜欢的音乐形式，邀请世界各地我最钟爱的音乐家朋友和英雄们共同参与，跨越地球各个角落录制而成。这个计划无比雄心勃勃，但当时我并未觉得它不切实际；它的感觉就是很对。于是，我让它占据了我的想象，开始勾勒它的轮廓。

Four distinct universes began to emerge. The first, Vol. 1, was a vast orchestral world - expansive, open and capacious. It would pull from choral music, Moroccan gnawa music, Brazilian samba, and much of the classical music that I grew up in the orbit of as a child. Vol. 2 felt to be a more intimate setting, cosy and gentle, with a cohort of acoustic flavourings - embracing tones of folk, bossa nova, African, Portuguese and Cuban-inspired grooves, and beyond. Vol. 3 began as a scrapyard of more electronic sonic experiments - crossing from funk into R&B, dance, pop, and the spoken word. This was a world of negative space - the inner world, the electric storm, the fever dream. Little did I know I'd end up making this album almost entirely during quarantine.

四个独特的音乐宇宙逐渐显现。

第一篇章 Vol. 1 是一个广阔的管弦乐世界——开阔、豁达且宏大。它汲取了合唱音乐（choral music）、摩洛哥古纳瓦音乐（Moroccan gnawa music）、巴西桑巴舞曲（Brazilian samba）以及我童年时期深受影响的诸多古典音乐元素。

Vol. 2 则营造出更为亲密的氛围，舒适而柔和，充满了各种原声风格——涵盖民谣（folk）、波萨诺瓦（bossa nova）、启发自非洲/葡萄牙/古巴等国家音乐的节奏律动（African, Portuguese and Cuban-inspired grooves），以及更多。

Vol. 3 起初是电子声音实验的废品场——跨越放克（funk）、R&B、舞曲（dance）、流行（pop）和朗诵诗（spoken word）等形式。这是一个充满负空间（negative space）的世界——内心宇宙、电闪雷鸣、热病之梦。我未曾料到这张专辑几乎完全是在隔离期间完成的。

I left Vol. 4 as a blank space - a question mark - for some time, as I wasn't sure what would feel the most crucial to create - nor what the end of the story might be. I had some broad-stroke ideas - the return of the orchestra, choirs all around the world, a multitude of languages, a combination of past themes, the world as an instrument - but I wasn't sure how it would all converge. For a while, it felt unmakeable. The moment it finally clicked for me was during my world tour of 2022, when the Audience Choir began to take on wings of its own. Its musical, spiritual and philosophical impact on me changed the trajectory of my purpose, my creativity, and my life forever. I realised exactly what Vol. 4 needed to be - an ode to the collective human spirit, by way of the human voice. I ended up recording 91 shows throughout the year, all across the planet, and it's those audience voices that underpin the album sonically - they feature on almost every song on the album. There are over 100,000 voices in total, alongside the 100+ other musicians featured, with over 20 languages sung, spoken and rapped across the album. It's that explosion of collective energy which unifies the record, and the feeling I am most proud of.

我一度让 Vol. 4 保持为空白状态，停留在一个问号中，因为我不确定什么是创作过程中最重要的部分，也不知道故事的结局将会是什么。我有一些粗略的想法——乐团的回归、世界各地的唱诗班、多种语言的融合、过去主题的结合、把世界当作乐器使用等等——但不确定它们如何融为一体。有一段时间，我觉得这是无法实现的。直到 2022 年全球巡演时，“观众合唱团”（Audience Choir）开始展现出自己的生命力，我才最终找到了答案。观众合唱团对我在音乐、精神和哲学层面产生的影响，改变了我的目标、创造力和生活的轨迹。我意识到，Vol. 4 应该成为一首颂扬人类集体精神的赞歌，通过人类的声音来表达。我在全年 91 场演出中进行了录音，足迹遍布全球各地，正是这些观众的声音构成了专辑的核心声音景观——几乎每首歌曲都有他们的参与。整张专辑共收录了超过 10 万个人的声音，此外还有 100 多位其他音乐家献艺，涉及 20 多种不同的演唱、说话和说唱语言。这种集体能量的爆发统一了整张唱片，这是我最为自豪的感觉。

From the bottom of my heart, I'd like to thank each and every musician who contributed to these four albums, hailing from across all continents of the world, of all ages and generations, and from unlimited genres of music; whose open minds and hearts have inspired bridges of all kinds to be built.

衷心感谢来自世界各地、来自不同年龄层和世代、来自无限音乐流派的每一位为这四张专辑做出贡献的音乐家，你们开放的思想和心灵，激发了作品中各种各样的沟通之桥的建立。

It's a monumental honour to call you all my coadventureres, my teachers, my friends. You've each brought something so distinctly YOU, that nobody else could have brought. For that, I'm forever grateful.

能称你们为我的共同冒险者、老师、朋友，是我莫大的荣幸。你们每个人都带来了独一无二的自我，这是任何人都无法替代的。为此，我永远感激不尽。

I'd like to thank every one of you who has ever come to a show of mine and joined the audience choir - you have changed my life, and foundationally shifted the nature of this album series. Thank you for carrying me, inspiring me, and showing me the way to beauty such as I'd never known.

我要感谢每一个参加过我演唱会并加入“观众合唱团”的人，你们改变了我的生活，从根本上重塑了这张专辑系列的本质。谢谢你们支持我、激励我，向我展示了前所未见的美好之路。

To my beautiful 120-year-old music room in London, where I recorded, produced and mixed the vast majority of all four Djesse albums - thank you for being my eternal sanctuary, shelter and inspiration.

我要感谢我在伦敦的那个美丽的、拥有 120 年历史的音乐室，在这里我录制、制作和混音了四张 Djesse 专辑中的绝大部分内容——谢谢你作为我永恒的避风港、庇护所和灵感源泉。

To the 23-year-old Jacob who dreamed up this whole escapade six years ago from the ground up; who dug into the deepest parts of me, shattered my comfort zone, and took innumerable leaps of faith to make a project so vastly improbable into something real - I am deeply proud of you.

要感谢六年前从零开始构想整个历险记的 23 岁的 Jacob，他深入挖掘了我内心深处的部分，打破了我的舒适区，无数次怀着信念飞跃，将这样一个看似不可能的项目变为现实——我为你深感自豪。

And to the 11 year old Jacob, with Logic and his SM58, chasing a North Star - thank you for your courage, your perseverance, your curiosity. I will never stop exploring, in your honour.

还要感谢 11 岁时的 Jacob，怀揣 Logic 和 SM58 麦克风，追寻北极星的方向——感谢你的勇气、毅力和好奇心。为了你，我会永不停止探索的脚步。

I believe, to my core, that there has never been a more important time to create music. It is a universal language that holds unimaginable power to alchemise connection and bring about change. No matter who you are, whatever you believe, whomever and however you love, and whichever way you experience the world, there is something beautiful, crucial and undeniable about a collection of human beings combining forces to express truth and free each other. Music does this so beautifully, so utterly. All of us who make it and listen to it are a part of the conversation.

我坚信，在当今时代，创作音乐从未如此重要。音乐是一种通用的语言，拥有无可估量的力量去催化联系并带来变革。无论你是谁，无论你信仰什么，无论你爱谁、怎样去爱，无论你如何体验这个世界，当一群人类共同努力表达真相、解放彼此时，总有一种美丽、关键且不可否认的力量存在。音乐做到了这一点，做得如此美妙，如此彻底。我们所有创造和聆听音乐的人都是这场对话的一部分。

This album has brought me back to life countless times - has helped me understand, grieve & process the world - and restored my faith in humanity in multitudes. It has taught me the potency of trust and patience, and shown me the immense power of putting faith in people. More than ever, this feels like the start of an adventure, rather than the conclusion of one. The end of the beginning, perhaps.

这张专辑无数次让我重获新生——它帮助我理解世界，助我在哀痛中感悟并处理世事——并且极大地恢复了我对人性的信任。它教会了我信任和耐心的力量，并向我展示了对他人的信念所蕴含的巨大能量。我比以往任何时候都更强烈地感觉到，这是新的冒险的开始，而非某一段旅程的结束。也许是“开始的终结”吧。

I cannot wait to meet, sing, and celebrate with you all on the road this year with these new songs in tow. The thought of it fills my soul with an explosive joy that I cannot contain.

今年我迫不及待地想要与你们见面、唱歌，并带着这些新歌在路上共同庆祝。一想到这样的场景，我的灵魂就充满了无法抑制的喜悦。

So, to all of you, whether you're a fresh visitor to my world or you've been by my side for a decade - I'm grateful to have found a place with you, here on the interwebs, on this fine day. Thank you for keeping me such excellent company.

所以，无论是初次接触我的世界的你们，还是陪我走过十年历程的你们，在网络的这片天地里，能在这里找到彼此，我心存感激。感谢你们一直以来这么精彩的陪伴。

Here's to the end of the Djesse era - and to the beginning of the beyond.

这是 Djesse 时代的终结，也是超越的开始。

And now, at 6: 46am - TO SLEEP.

现在，6 点 46 分，该睡觉了。