Congolese-born, Montreal-based musician, songwriter, and DJ Pierre Kwenders announces his new album, José Louis and the Paradox of Love, out April 29 on Arts & Crafts, and today presents its lead single/video, “Papa Wemba.” Following MAKANDA at The End of Space, the Beginning of Time, Kwenders’s 2017 sophomore album, and Le Dernier Empereur Bantou, his 2014 debut – both of which earned Kwenders nominations for the Polaris Music Prize – José Louis and the Paradox of Love finds the artist arriving at a new juncture: a moment of resonance, carefully wrapped in freewheeling tapestry, hinged in reverence to its diverse heritage, yet reveling in the inventive combination of its elements. A storyteller at his core, Kwenders is motivated by the intricacies of love. His songs weave together narratives from memories of the past, sketches of his hometown, and reflections on the future. Recorded over four years in a handful of cities across borders and featuring numerous collaborators including Win Butler, King Britt, Ngabo, Sônge, anaiis, Babel Bukasa, Michael Brun, Uproot Andy, and the Africa Intshiyetu Choir, José Louis and the Paradox of Love is a culmination of personal growth and the musical dexterity Kwenders has honed over the years.

Born in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kwenders borrows his stage name from his late grandfather, a widely respected businessman and community figure. Following his mother’s footsteps, in 2001 Kwenders immigrated from Congo to Montreal. While his music-filled childhood quickly earned him a reputation as the most energetic dancer at family gatherings, it was when he joined a youth choir in 2008 that Kwenders would have his first formative musical experience. Inspired by “sagacité,” a way of life coined by Ivorian singer Douk Saga, which means to work hard in order to play hard, a decade later he’s established himself as an architect of modern African music, creating a unique blend of Afro-inflected electronic sounds inspired by Congolese rumba, propagated by the Moonshine collective, a post-border multidisciplinary artist collective co-founded by Kwenders in 2014 that celebrates diversity in dance culture.

José Louis and The Paradox of Love features Kwenders singing and rapping in Lingala, French, English, Tshiluba, and Kikongo as he weaves stories across the boundaries of language and geography. Symbolically titled after his birth name, José Louis Modabi, the album explores an ongoing search to grasp the universal complexities of romance, sometimes through the lens of Kwenders’ own intimate experiences. Through different moments of tension and release, romantic narratives of beauty and disaster are packed into powerful poetic musical vignettes.

Just as Kwenders writes from a multilingual perspective, so too does he draw on his musical influences, searching for the precise nuances offered by each one to best emotionally resonate. José Louis and The Paradox of Love transcends genres including electronic, pop, and rumba and includes instruments such as the guitar, saxophone, cello, trumpet, violin, and the Mbira, a plucked idiophone from Zimbabwe.

Since the release of 2017’s MAKANDA at The End of Space, the Beginning of Time, Kwenders has collaborated with numerous artists including French producer Clément Bazin and the Brooklyn-based producer/Que Bajo party co-founder, Uproot Andy. In 2019, Kwenders joined forces with Ngabonziza Kiroko to form the future soul duo ABAKOS. Their debut album, Solar Soldier, was released in 2019, featuring production from prolific British electronic musician Jamie Lidell.