Bella Koshka

A cinematic landscape and its echoing remains. A journey through time to an old, forgotten place. This is the epic tale of "Deception Island," the long-awaited second album by Minneapolis gypsy noir quintet Bella Koshka. Haunting whispers weave between guitar and violin arrangements, pushed by ominous bass and booming percussion. Eerie saw, organ and cello layers round out each song to create a medieval soundtrack. Recorded by Darren Jackson (Kid Dakota, The Hopefuls), mixed by Brad Kern (producer and sound engineer for Semisonic and The Twilight Hours) and mastered by Tom Garneau.

Formed in Minneapolis, MN in Autumn of 2006, violinist Hilary Davis and vocalist Laura Boland began composing organic and electronic melodies together with the help of local musicians and producer Darren Jackson. Their debut album "Slow Dancing on the Ocean Floor" [released in 2008] was a symphonic-electronic fusion of dreamy lullabies. Soon following their debut, the duo recruited Matte Franklin [drums], Matt Vannelli [guitar] and Tim Ritter [bass] to add a dynamic intensity to their evolving sound.


"A bewitchingly baroque musical experience...strikingly original" ~ Rob van Alstyne [Reveille Magazine]

"Quiet layers of sound building up on each other--a wash of electronic texture under a slow beat under an ethereal, sadly romantic vocal." ~ The Onion

"Laura Boland whispers, sighs and trills through her dark, grown-up poetry; Hilary Davis' violin adds lithesome textures, and the overall effect is something like a lost classic from the underground British dream-pop label 4AD" ~ Simon Peter Groebner [vita.mn]


"Highly atmospheric songs that suggest Kate Bush.." ~ Ross Raihala [Saint Paul Pioneer Press]


"The Minneapolis band Bella Koshka sounds like it’s from the future—some industrial, post-apocalyptic future. The musicians create a world that’s kinda eerie, and kinda bleak, but you also think David Bowie might be there, wearing a really cool outfit. The group’s moody debut features Hilary Davis’s keening violin and Laura Boland’s aching lyrics. Heavy bass lines and a procession of other electronica keeps you suspended in murky, lovely limbo land. “Echo” plays like a creepy, slow-moving carousel that’s about to break down, and “Stitches” conjures a lost kitten, yearning to be rescued." —JESSICA CHAPMAN [Minnesota Monthly]

“Bella Koskha play a violin-laced dreamy music topped with Laura Boland’s gorgeous vocals. Relic suggests the Decemberists making friends with Kate Bush, all hissing vocals and expansive sound. Fiction sees a metaphor of fiction imitating life or vice versa stretched to encompass the words. Coma sees the band playing in a sumptuous style, Hilary Davis’ violin taking charge. Boland’s dreamy meander is icing on the cake. Stitches is a sweet piano ballad that has subtly poetic lyrics and Boland sounding lovely. This is a wonderful record.” ~ Anna Maria Stjärnell [Collected Sounds Blog, SWEDEN]..

"Bella Koshka’s beautifully stricken Coma's bitter cord-plucking sets the tone for the song, a plaintive and enamouring song, thriving off the inconsolable mewl of traditional Eastern European violins, and dramatized by the ominous boom of a bass drum, above which Laura Boland’s wistful, dreamy vocals yearn in perfect broken romanticism. But this airy, baroque vista has a story tell, one which pushes itself into becoming frustratingly desperate with the jangling echoes of guitars building up to a wrenching, broken flourish, dishearteningly striving for something unachievable, purposefully failing to break into a truly elevating escape." ~ A Limerick Ox [blog]