Ani Difranco, Edith Piaf, Janis Joplin, Mum, Nirvana, Cat Power, Broken Social Scene, The Books, Nat King Cole, Thee More Shallows, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Bjork, Jose Gonzalez, Tori Amos, Animal Collective, Aesop Rock, Sigur Ros, Modest Mouse, The Cranberries, EfterKlang, Sparklehorse, Elliott Smith, Sami Kukka, B. Flieschmann, God Speed you Black Emperor, Gershwin, and life as an experince itself.
Karin Tatoyan came to life in a small Alabama town. She comes from a long line of Syrian-Armenian actors, musicians & puppeteers. The first years of her life she spent traipsing through the woods and cornfields of Indiana. In fifth grade she suffered the trauma of moving to Los Angeles. Classically trained since the age of seven, Karin taught herself how to play guitar at fifteen, and began using her musicianship to channel the poems of her life.
Karin is a field of opposites - a private, demur composer of highly sexual and passionate songs. She possesses a tiny stature with a voice the size of the North Atlantic. She writes songs bursting with joy, yearning, wasted hope, and nostalgia for a lost childhood. They seem to skip to their own time like playful children juxtaposing the ugly and the beautiful until they're a new form unto their own.
At only twenty-four, Karin is a veteran of the Los Angeles acoustic scene. She recently removed herself from its strummy environs to concoct the more dynamic and driving electronic sound characteristic of her debut. For her live performances, she has partnered with the multi-instrumentalist The One Second Time Machine as well as a couple classical musicians to create a theatrical, mind-bending act that stands head and shoulders above standard club fare. Think an Armenian-American Björk meets Ziggy Stardust. It's that great and ambitious. The sonic rebirth of this new artist will be a sight to behold.
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PRESS QUOTES
"Think of Tatoyan as a baroque Bjork. If her haunting vocals don’t dazzle you, her odd music will — counterposing, as it does, weird electronics, sound effects and loops with the very organic tones of a French horn and cello. Seeing her is like watching an Escher come to life. Almost-mathematical repetition gives way to chaos; melodies build and build yet resist payoff, like stairways to nowhere" - Kevin Bronson,
LA Times (click)
"Haunting" is too terrestrial to ascribe to the voice and sounds of this 24-year-old LA-based chanteuse--when Kárin Tatoyan opens her mouth, ghosts gather to take notes. After a few years unraveling quiet etherea from a piano bench, Tatoyan was reborn as baroque banshee. On stage, she writhes, crawls and croons, wailing black beauty over a dizzying array of electronics (loops, keys, knobs) and instrumentation (French horn, cello, drums). And with a clear taste for both chaos and costumes (not to mention her soaring voice), Tatoyan readily cconjures images of a young Bjork on the verge. Her studio output thus far is minimal, but she's only biding time while the storm brews." - Louis Vlack, Coachella Magazine
"A performer who swirls between musical extremes, Kárin Tatoyan is the possessor of a unique and hauntingly gorgeous voice, one that alternately croons and erupts from the center of an increasingly left-field musical approach. Her music is a strange, prismatic nebula strewn with jagged, twinkling glass—it kisses even as it cuts, it shatters and shimmers simultaneously as layers of electronica fold into pockets of post-rock minimalism and booming orchestral majesty."-
Web In Front (click)
"There is something very otherworldly about her vocals, which would fit perfectly into an episode of The Twilight Zone. Watching her perform is like seeing a girl possessed... Despite comparisons with other artists, this girl stands on her own as an individual amidst the indie, pop, grunge, electronica, whatever scene." - URB Magazine Blog
"In a city like Los Angeles, where one thing bleeds into the next and it is beginning to seem like every fucking band is starting to sound the same, there shines a brilliant, little light. Her name is Karin Tatoyan (pronounced kar-reen). She is beautiful. She is a muse. She posses a voice like that of a siren." - Kill The Microphone
"The main ingredient though would be Karin as she is an extremely compelling performer writhing on the ground at moments exorcising her demons in the form of song... She is on the verge of bigger things." - Amateur Chemist
"The Armenian Björk" - The Armenian Reporter
"Karin Tatoyan's bio says that her musical aspirations come from the toilet. Wait, is that a joke? Could be, but after listening to the dark, ambient side of what sounds like Bjork and a voice that comes close to a bipolar Cat Power, her musical "toilet" seems to represent a time when life craps all over you. As disgusting as it may sound, songs such as "Ver Cha Bess" can put you in an isolated conscious state with your own guilty thoughts. Either Tatoyan is a genius at expressing herself, or maybe I'm overestimating her ability as an artist." - URB Magazine
"...the contrast between her emotive singing and the vibrant back drop is a powerful listening experience. That is what she wants. To cast out her songs and draw people in up through their bellies with her music. All she asks is for people to get it. This warmth is what distinguishes her less as a fierce little songbird, and more a musician trying to wake up those who blink life by, hiding behind their sunglasses."-88 days
"...gal with a colorful history has something haunting about her voice. Kind of reminds me of Harriet Wheeler of THE SUNDAYS or like a HOPE SANDOVAL."-FUTURE SOUNDS
"What intense, unique orchestrations sitting on top of that throbbing beat that rearranges your organs. Meanwhile her thrilling vocals kept rearranging my head. I only saw 4 or 5 of her songs but by the end I was flabbergasted by this raw talent. Her screaming, shouting, moaning, but beautifully sung ending left me speechless."- Feed Your Head
"The drums beat like waves and the synthesizers emulated diamond cutting chrome. Without warning the dark, delicate human being on stage clenched her hands, tossed her head around, and became animal. She bellowed deep howls from cold space and spit white-hot nails of anger as she sang. The ambient orchestra tableau was uncomfortable, profoundly moving, and commanded respect. No one else around town is really doing this."-Classical Geek Theater
"Karin Tatoyan stretches the boundaries of what's acceptable public behavior and recalls everyone from Janis Joplin to Bjork (though she seems to me a bit less self-conscious than Bjork). She seems simultaneously theatrical and genuine."-Feed Your Head
kárin, I have uploaded your show from 12/2/08 @ the Echoplex. I just listened to it, and it reminded me why I was in tears that night. It was one of the most beautiful performances I've witnessed. I felt so sorry for the pain you were in and I hope you're better from it... http://el1011.com/karin.html
