Harleighblu x Starkiller Amorine

Harleighblu X Starkiller is a formidable link-up between British soul/electronic singer Harleighblu and LA duo Starkiller (the production outfit of C.E. Garcia & Alfredo E. Fratti, members of Adrian Younge’s Venice Dawn). A science fiction film in sonic form, the ‘Amorine’ LP tells a tragic future love story in which high drama collides with a cool, clean, sci-fi atmosphere via hip hop sensibilities that draw on musical references from psychedelic funk to DJ Shadow to Portishead.

In the distant future, society is given a drug called “Amorine” to lull them into submission, and suppress all emotions.

We follow a young girl named Joanna, a citizen of a giant metropolis, who, due to a meeting of chance, has been struck by love at first sight: a young artist named Giraud, a resident of the lower levels of the city, has caught her eye, and she has become victim to what she thinks is an emotion known as “love,” but is unsure.

In attempts to feel the full effects of this newfound “emotion,” she confronts the boy, and convinces him to stop taking the drug. As the influence of the drug wears off, they both fall madly in love with one another.

In the midst of their romance, Joanna becomes ill, and Giraud takes her to a machine that allows them to see inside of her. There they discover that her entire body is nothing more than machinery, and without the drug in her system, she will die. Joanna comes to the realization that if she begins taking Amorine to save her life, the love felt for Giraud will be forgotten, and that she would rather die than forget her lover.

Given only 12 hours to live, the two spend every moment together. When the time finally arrives, they make their way to the highest point of the city, take hold of one another’s hand, and leap to their death.

On impact, Joanna awakes in a laboratory full of others just like her, she has been placed back online and is now faced with the harsh reality that with Giraud being human, she has lost him forever, and will have to exist in a world without him.