Photay Turns Chuck Mangione’s “Land of Make Believe” Into a Synth-Driven Homage

Evan Shornstein, who records as Photay, returns after a quiet stretch with a cover that threads personal devotion through dancefloor pulse. The track is “Land of Make Believe,” a soft-focus jazz standard by the late Chuck Mangione. Shornstein didn’t reach for the studio original; he lifted the 1973 live version recorded at Toronto’s Massey Hall with vocalist Esther Satterfield, then rebuilt it as a bright synth wave that leans toward balearic release.

Mangione died last summer, and this release reads as an unvarnished salute. On Bandcamp, Shornstein wrote of discovering the song “at the very moment you need it most,” describing its “persistent samba rhythm and full orchestra embrace.” His version keeps the core melody intact but replaces strings with flickering arpeggios and a steady kick, nudging the sentiment onto a sweaty floor without erasing its tenderness. A drumapella edit strips everything back to bare rhythm.

The gesture lands softly. It’s not a radical deconstruction, just a producer recontextualizing a piece of music that shaped him. The original’s warmth, as Shornstein puts it, remains a “timeless gift.” Here, that gift gets a second life in a different room.