When not playing or recording solo, Fiorentino works with Char Rothschild, who along with his brother Robbie and Jon Gagan make up www.roundmountain.com(piano, trumpet, saz, gaida, tupan), Michael Kott (electric cello), Joel Fadness, Portland, OR (drums, percussion www.joelfadness.com) Celtic Harpist, Jonathan Keezing of Amherst, MA, and Kevin Smith on tuba of Turners Falls, MA.
Influences
33gods
SEE www.myspace.com/33gods
FOR ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT (EPK)
www.sonicbids.com/lauriannefiorentino
Laurianne sings "Homeland" ....
Silence, Dylan, Howlin Wolf, Taos Pueblo, Stillness, Al Jarreau, San Il Difonso Pueblo, Sounds of the Forest, Elizabeth Cotton, Motion, Satie, Songs of The Elements, Shutz, Horace Silver, Van Morrison, Gnawa Spirit Shakers of Morrocco, Vibration, Ray Mason, The Desert, Georgia O'Keeffe, Space, Nusfrat Fatih Ali Khan, Hamza El Din, R. Carlos Nakai, Shakespeare, Van Morrison, Dougie MacLean, Mozart, Stillness, Chirgilchin of Tuva, Hafiz
"Music that resonates with the thud and grind of techtonic plates and the thin whistle of the nighthawk. Echoes from the soul of an ancient village rumbling under high heels on city sidewalks."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sounds Like
BRIEF EDITORIAL QUOTES AND ENDORSEMENTS ------
FOR ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT (EPK) SEE www.sonicbids.com/lauriannefiorentino
"It's unusual for a solo artist to be so gripping. Most need a band to flesh out the material. In Fiorentino's case, a band might hide the substance."
- (Music Awards Judge) ------
THE MATCH - SOLO CONCERT CD - REVIEW -
"A LIVE bare-bones concert recording in a huge adobe New Mexican church...Laurianne Fiorentino sings stunningly original lyrics woven into complex rhythms and rootsy music. With a voice that sounds at times rough and ready and at others like a long velvet dress. Haunting acapella tracks accompanied by silence or a thumping beat. Guitar work is strong and innovative...extremely simple. There's no whinging or finger-pointing here. Just music that's honest and challenging...with a tinge of humor. Check out the spoken-work title track with the twisted blues-band-from-hell backing track." --------
“…one of the best performers on the scene…”
--(The Lobby Entertainment Guide, Cork, Ireland) -------
"...a deep and old presence that reminds me of Leadbelly....more dynamics and power than some entire bands of talented musicians"
--(Band Contest Judge) --------
Laurianne is "an artist unafraid to follow her instincts". Her bamboo flute playing "is spacious, very free while remaining true to the spirit of the Native traditions from which Fiorentino's instrument originated."
--(Dirty Linen Roots & World Music Magazine) --------
"eerie.... her lyrics part from listener's expectations with originality and rhythmically complex delivery" -------(Santa Fe Reporter, Matt Donovan)
guitar like a drum, a bass and a bell...multiple-layered rhythms, driving forces, ambitious and personal " -------(Taos News, Ted Diamond) -
"not just a John Cage-like performance artist with more than a little sense of humor, poetic, recalls Joan Armatrading" -------(New Mexican, Woody Thompson) -
"Fiorentino has an un-orthodox voice that can go from a growl to a wail to a whisper. Her songs feature stunningly original lyrics, complex rhythms, honesty, and (surprisingly!) hilarity - almost all at once."
--(Memphis FolKrawl) --------
“Laurianne's work does with words what my work does with music." (Soundtrack Composer - BARAKA, CHRONOS - Michael Stearns, www.michaelstearns.com) -------
SANTA FE REPORTER - “A TRADITIONAL ORIGINAL” By Matt Donvan
Laurianne Fiorentino is one step ahead of you. Just when you think you can pigeonhole her music, she dodges out of range of your expectations. Her past experience includes R&B bands, solo blues and even a musical comedy troupe. But according to her, she has found her true niche in the music world only recently, and it's a niche that defies easy catagorizing.
There is a strong folk element in her work, but it's an unorthodox folk comprised of qualities rarely found in the cafe music scene. Fiorentino is attuned to every nuance of her music, down to the silence between the beats. She has a raw energy onstage, an original sense of how song works, and, most importantly, a stunningly strong voice.
Many folk singers wallow in their own comfortable voice range. Not Fiorentino, who leaps from a low growl to a high-pitched wail and back to a whisper in a single tune. When she sets aside her many instruments (ranging from guitar, to bamboo flute to a pair of rocks) her a cappella moments are haunting and evoke the spiritual tradition.
Recently, Firoentino was nominated Artist of the Year by the National Academy of Songwriters, and her soon-to-be-released album affirms the honor. Most of "The Match" was recorded live at the Santuario de Guadalupe, and the atmosphere and acoustics of the church are a good match for Fiorentino's style (It sounds alot like Cowboy Junkies' "Trinity Sessions, recorded in a Toronto church. It has that eerie bare-bones feel and Fiorentino sounds a bit like Junkies' Margo Timmins).
Although her lyrics are in the basic framework of the folk/blues traditions, they also part decisively from the listener's expectations. A typical line swerves from the conventional - "I woke up one morning" - into a surreality - "and the world was white/and every color knew it was winning." The album's best songs match a lyrical originality with a rhythmically complex delivery. Listen to the end of "Simple As the Sun", as she breaks down the chorus into her own brand of scat singing, interspersing words with bursts of silence.
Fiorentino refuses to take herself too seriously. She is not about mere showmanship or self-importance and you need only to hear her "one note song" to know that. She is more concerned with crafting songs and offering up music that is honest and authentic.
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TAOS NEWS – “FIORENTINO TAKES A CHANCE” By Ted Dimond
..." She played guitar and bamboo flutes and sang her original songs with a broad deep voice - a voice which at times sounds rough and ready, at others soft and lush like a long velvet dress.
Fiorentino plays her guitar at once like a drum, a bass and a bell. She wears an ankle strap hung with sea shells and creates multiple-layered rhythms with her music, challenging her voice and her audience to keep pace. Her songs are concerned with rhythmic driving forces, and their strength grows from her willingness to take a chance. Her songs are also ambitious and personal.
Fiorentino began her show the other night by telling her audience that tonight "everything you feel will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help yourself." Her voice is sexy and thick. It ranges from a whisper to a tidal wave, while singing songs about memories and mysteries, gentleness and pain. It's a bright bluesy , elastic voice filled with robust imperfection. She is willing to and eager to discover something new in performance. In her song, "Out In The Meadow", she sings…" I found three things to show you…the first one is so rare, you can see right through it/the second one is so silly, it gives you sense to do it/the third one is so close you just can't get to it/they followed me home, moved right in before I even knew it." Someone in the audience asked what the three things in the song were and if they were trying to solve a puzzle. The composer's answer, "If I knew what they were, I wouldn't have to sing about them."
She has been working in a recording studio with Michael Stearns in Santa Fe and continues to write prolifically. She is also fond of others' words, riddling her conversation with references to Thomas Merton, the label on the bottles of Dr. Bronner's soaps and the South African prime minister, Nelson Mandela.
To introduce a song, Fiorentino paraphrased a quote she had heard attributed to Mandela.
When Fiorentino plays her bamboo flute, her eyes close and her back is angled as she leans into the microphone. She creates earth tones which stretch and contract like wind in the trees, like a large winged bird overhead, earth tones which stretch and contract like her voice. Between songs Fiorentino tells stories and laughs at herself. The audience laughs along, sharing her paradoxical musings.
In her song entitled "Inside the Change" she sings:"Inside the change I'm getting stronger but it feels like a weakness to me." In a great gravelly blues tune called "Let's Read", She makes a novel proposal, imploring her partner in a sexy whisper to "quote something famous to me" and "I love the way you turn my page".
Fiorentino has collaborated with cellists, violinists, percussionists and saxaphonists. She's performed with pianists and comedians. For now she's focussing on her solo work pushing herself and her audience. Fiorentino still drives a reliable car, and the views from her Tesuque home are as vast and varied as her songs.
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From Annie – Toronto NXNE fan
woman...
you filled me up
your journey so echoed my own
whether or not you expected it
i am sending you my pixeled soul
i felt your passion
your connection to mother earth and all her quirks
i shivered
i quaked
as you voiced through
earth and air
water and fire
your circuitous route through life
so far...
i found inspiration to pick up
my drum
my guitar
my shake
anything
and create
and feel
thankyou
i have drifted to wind horse rising several times already
i plan to enter it again today during my massage
you are a gift
and i trust we will meet again
until then i will spread the word of the beautiful and talented
the one and only
the fiery
laurianne fiorentino...
peace and love to you
annie
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From Wolfgang, Radio Nimbin, Nimbin, New South Wales, Australia
Radio Nimbin is playing your two CD. Me in my show about the Woodford Festival and an other bloke in his show. The response is very positive.
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SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN - "FIORENTINO EXPLORES THE OTHER SIDE - CD RELEASE CONCERT IN SANTUARIO" By Woddy Thompson
Laurianne Fiorentino is a creative woman who enjoys honoring the honesty of the moment in her music. Consider the following evidence.
The title track from this singer-songwriter's newly released CD, The Match, is six minutes of improvised spoken metaphor. Fiorentino will premiere the work at an Equinox CD release concert in the Santuario de Guadalupe…the same venue where it was recorded live.
The creation of the hidden spoken word title track "The Match", emerged when Fiorentino sat down, rolled the tape at an unscheduled recording session and launched into an unscripted. impromptu story that surprises with its spontaneity and insight.
John Bartlit, percussionist for the New Mexico Symphony, wrote, arranged, recorded and played the music for the track "The Match". He played a twisted old rusted twelve-string guitar simultaneously as Fiorentino told her tale and added the "orchestra" later. When Fiorentino first asked him to make time in his exhausting schedule to play in her concert, she assured him that if he needed to take a nap onstage during the show she would be thrilled. In fact, she said, if he became so exhausted that he had to pack up and leave during the performance, it would be magnificent! Bartlit agreed, liking a good sport, and though he became so ill that he had to cancel his symphony concerts the night before, he still traveled from Albuquerque to play with Laurianne in Santa Fe.
But Fiorentino is not just a John Cage-like performance artist, with more than a little sense of humor. Her debut CD also is filled with finely crafted, poetic, original songs emphasizing similes and apparent paradoxes. Filled with rhythmic energy, they are sung in a voice that modulates pitch and dynamics in a way that recalls Joan Armatrading.
Fiorentino accompanied herself on guitar, harmonica, ocarina and bamboo-flute, an instrument she plays beautifully that is well suited to her vocal stylings.
Recorded live with no overdubbing in two performances last year at the Santuario de Guadalupe, The Match also takes live performance recording a step further. An unusual method of audience participation was included, suggested by Fiorentino's sound mixing and mastering collaborator, Michael Stearns.
"There are three songs on the CD that have audience response," Fiorentino said." And the rest of them have silence between the cuts. At the second concert I asked the audience to just let the sound hang in the church between songs and let the space do what it does. If they wanted to applaud, I suggested they shake their hands in the air."
"I would finish a piece with my eyes closed and then open my eyes to see a room full of people waving their hands. Everyone was silently laughing which made me laugh too. We had fun. It was sort of like the performance of a symphony where they audience lets the music envelope them and expresses their reaction at the end."
The release of The Match caps a year in which Fiorentino founded her own record label, Entelechy(an Aristotelian concept that describes the vital force that moves a living organism toward fulfillment). She was also nominated by the National Academy of Songwriters as Acoustic Artist of the year, and had a segment of her harmonica playing chosen for the soundtrack to Paul Davids' documentary film Timothy Leary's Dead.
She hopes to release an instrumental recording later this year featuring herself on bamboo flutes accompanied by cello and then a second vocal recording of original songs.
"I am a new artist and this is my calling card," Fiorentino said about her first-ever CD. "This is also what you get when you hire me. I'm not going to give you a band production and then show up by myself. This CD I going to be so revealing; it's going to create feedback and if it doesn't, well, that's feedback too. Sometimes I think this work is an exposure of who I am, but it's also of where I want to be. Because I struggle with self-compassion, I sing about a place where there is compassion and what it would look like to me."
"I haven't been looking at it from the outside, but from the inside. I've been living up in Tesuque, on the hill and just sitting there listening, trying to reconnect myself to something to hold onto that feels like letting go."
--------------------------------
SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN EDITORIAL -"LISTEN: THE EARTH MIGHT BE TELLING YOU SOMETHING" By Laurianne Fiorentino
LAF: Hello Earth! How are you today?
EARTH: I'm ok...actually, I'm feeling a little under the weather...let's just say, I've felt better.
LAF: Well, I was wondering what your thoughts were concerning things like deforestation, nuclear power and other toxic-waste producing activities that we humans are struggling with including "wild-life management" and "land management"...you know, stuff like that?
EARTH: It's funny...I've been wondering if anyone was ever going to ask me...and if they did, would they have the courage to really listen?
LAF: Go ahead, give it a shot. I think it's time you set the record straight.
EARTH: OK. In reality, humans are a part of me, they grew out of me. I am part of their creative process. My intention is to keep revolving , keep evolving until such time that I don't. To even begin this conversation is to admit that even a unit is able to communicate with different parts of itself. Like a finger talking to a brain. There's not necessarily a conflict of motives but simply a sharing of information. After that, the immediately contacted unit can move with intention because it's been informed. Fire burns me, do what you want.
LAF: Alright. I'm with you so far.
EARTH: You see, those are very personal issues for me. It's been frustrating, I've been patient...you know how it feels to be misunderstood? Walked on? Not trusted? Ignored? Pushed around? Controlled and manipulated? Violated and abused?
LAF: Who doesn't?
EARTH: Exactly. I've been in the creative/evolutionary mode for the billions of years and only relatively recently has anyone or anything tried to mess with my work so viciously...and out of fear, at that! If I'm not mistaken, there's been an emotional rift growing between me and a large portion of what you might call "modern man". The group that lives on top of me, not within or consciously involved and beholden to my designs. As if they know something I don't. I'm hurt, wounded, and insulted...but I do believe that people are beginning to realize, with some resistance, where their priorities lie. You see, I serve all life forms, not just humans. I've cherished life-and-death cycles as a unit, a give and take, a web, a balance of opposites whether it happens daily, yearly or over thousands or millions of years. I'm forever encouraging innovative variations including human experimentation leading to wisdom through experience. Because of human "progress", so much is not a mystery anymore. I'm losing my health. I'm losing my balance. I have my limitations. I'm like you in that I, too, have forgotten what it's like to die. I'm a concrete little planet, not some ideal of immortal bedrock.
LAF: Can you elaborate on that?
EARTH: Sure, I mean, if planets were the shape of human bodies, and you were a planet, where would you put nuclear waste and other toxins? Where the sun doesn't shine? I don't think so. Would you, in all your intuitive senses, be willing to make something so deadly in the first place? Do what you must with the poisons you've made, but don't make any more of it.
LAF: Interesting perspective.
EARTH: Try this: if a bunch of other beings decided that you were to have your head shaved, burned, or to under-go plastic surgery and went ahead and did those things to you without even asking, how would you feel?
LAF: I'd be outraged! I wouldn't allow it!
EARTH: Me, too! And to think, you've done these horrors to yourselves, not just me. Humans know how the sun makes power now, so why not harness that power cleanly and safely as other life forms have learned to do? Why continue, in a linear fashion, to jeopardize my body and everything it contains for the sake of your abstract notion of economy? Is it a matter of ultimate human nature? If economics is the issue, then why not produce solar-powered parts that wear out and need replacing? Without a planet, you would have nowhere to exist in the human form you all cherish so much, never mind be financially successful. This is what puzzles me. Always has. Oh...I didn't mean to rant on so long...I get emotional sometimes. Sometimes I wish I were just a pile of rocks.
LAF: Me too...I mean, it's quite alright. I can see your point. Actually, I can feel your point. I guess I've been sensing something way back in the recesses of my psyche but have never been able to articulate it...I think you've struck a chord in me. Maybe we do have a connection, after all! Wow...thanks!
EARTH: Ah, music! The stuff of the universe! Glad you mentioned it! The chord, that is.
LAF: You are so cool to talk with! Thanks for your time and thoughts. I feel honored to be in your company. Just a few more things. What about earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, and droughts? Knowing that you have the power to destroy me in a second is scary.
EARTH: Well...I'm not without my faults.
LAF: Ha, ha, ha...
EARTH: Come on...You're a human, I'm a planet. We're much a like in more ways than you may be willing to comprehend. I feel the same way towards humans. I could be destroyed in any given moment without warning, too! You already know about my structural make-up and where it's more accommodating to live. The other things due to weather and evolution are just part of being a planet...not unlike human emotions, actually.
LAF: You've got me there, too. So, do you think that humans have a distorted sense of the meaning of "intelligence" and it's boundaries and applications? Much of what you have said today seems so logical and common-sensical.
EARTH: Yes...yet I have faith that humans will come to perceive and appreciate the incredible intelligence of the universe and everything in it. No one is alone...everything is all one...get it? If humans have an intelligence, then so does everything else! Nothing and no one is separate from anything or anyone else!
LAF: Whoa, Oh Mighty Planet We Call Home! Give me five!
EARTH: Sure...I've already given you forever...no prob! And a simple response to your initial concerns, if someone would have asked me first before they went ahead with any of it, I would have said "Well, if you feel you must do these things, go ahead, but I really wish you wouldn't." I guess it's a matter of radical trust...it's a tough concept but, actually, very simple. On a molecular level, anyway. Has your body ever said "Hey, I can't eat another bite" but you order desert anyway?
LAF: Yeah, but I recovered from it.
EARTH: So you did. So might I. But are we talking about apple pie or noxious fumes and radiation? Are we talking about a stomach ache or nuclear holocaust? I don't know. Curiously enough, I'm still an optimist. The entire universe and even humans may be more intelligent than even I could imagine. Thank you for letting me speak my heart. Who knows? Maybe the future will teach us all something new!
LAF: Thank you, my Beautiful, Inhabitable Planet! The least I can do is ask...the most, to listen!
Laurianne Fiorentino is a local singer/songwriter. Her concert "Interview With A Planet" to be recorded and released as her debut CD will be held at the Santuario de Guadalupe on tomorrow at 8 p.m.
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REVIEW FOR THE PUBLISHED ARTICLE "Listen, The Earth Might Be Telling You Something"...
Your story is good and well-written. It addresses critical issues without getting preachy -- it's funny yet serious, and I can see why it touched a lot of people who read it.
Jeff Bateman - Editor/freelance journalist, Vancouver, BC
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SONGWRITING WORKSHOP REVIEWS FROM STUDENTS
Dear Ms Fiorentino,
You came to the Hyde school and gave a beautiful performance. I then participated in your workshop in the spring and you taught me to look into myself for the music I couldn't find on the guitar which was strange and new to me. I just wrote you to thank you for giving me a different passion for music. You helped me see it in an entirely different light. I hope your tours are a hit and the people who hear you enjoy your wonderful music. Thank you again. ~
Phoebe Spence - Student
*****
I thought it was great- and it was great to see some of the kids who you don't see very much up there. You do something very special with the kids and they have a great time and learn a lot.
Walter Gregg, Performing Arts Director/Crew Coach, Hyde School, Bath ME
*****
I just wanted to thank you for the workshop. I got a lot out of it. I never really thought I'd come up with lyrics for my song, but with your help, I was inspired to find the heart and the motivation to do so.
Dan Ginsburg – Student
*****
Dear Laurianne,
I figured I should write you and let you know how my "career" has turned out so far. A little while after your visit, a man named Earl Bigelow came to work at Hyde and changed the Coffehouse show format. He got me swept up in his vision, and we ended up putting on the best coffehouse performance of the year. Earl convinced me to try the trio scene. So, If you remember Travis, well, he now plays bass in my band, and our mutual friend Dan plays drums. We formed to play two songs at coffehouse and came out as B.R.M. Trio. We turned into Centipede after that. We played one more school coffehouse after that. On April 30, We played our first real Gig, my first real gig, and we did great. We had also gotten a chance to get into a studio, one of which Earl made. So, we had a demo, and a gig. My parents we both quite proud to see me playing in a band, and doing it well. As for my summer plans, I plan to get a job, and maybe do a few gigs, and I will do a bit with Dan and Travis in August. I hope to see you visit next year. Write me back, It would be great to hear from you.
THE RECORDINGS IN THE SNOCAP STORE ABOVE ARE LIVE CONCERT RENDERINGS or improvisations and are unreleased on any CD. They may include Char Rothschild (trumpet, saz, tupan, piano), Michael Kott (cello), Joel Fadness (drums, percussion) and other musican guests from New Mexico and Massachusetts. Additional tracks will be added from time to time, so keep an ear out for them.
(SEE CDbaby.com/lauriannefiorentino AND amazon.com for CD purchases)
(SEE www.indiemusicforlife.org for a compilation CD "2008 Indie Music For Life to Fight Cancer" which includes Laurianne's song "Who Needs You" and many many other female songwriters....buy some and help caner research! Thanks.)
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This was the third song in a set opening for ODETTA, MAY 31, 2008, same show as above. "Homeland" speaks of the core, the seed, the center .....no matter what the geography...See Odetta's generous comments at the close of the clip...
"Laurianne Fiorentino occupies that grand vista where the interior world becomes the land the sky and the stars."
This video recorded May 31, 2008. An acapella song, "Little One", written after attending a lecture at The Santa Fe Institute on the origins of DNA. It appears that human life sprang from one of 3 threads....originating with the sciliates...pond algae....
AN INTRODUCTION:
Of Lithuanian and Italian descent, Laurianne Fiorentino's music is a meeting place where deep pagan currents and Renaissance expressions find balance and nurturing tension.
Laurianne is that rare artist that can bring the unspeakable into a world of music or leave you floating in a place of your own creation as the intellect reassuringly releases its grip, if even just for a moment.
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"Inside The Change" - jamming with Sharon Gilchrist, same concert as above. The opening song off of CD "The Match"....C U there!
"Confidence - 100 points. ...there's a deep and old presence that reminds
me of Leadbelly's most rootsy stuff. More dynamic presence then I've
heard in entire bands of talented musicians. Sounds like true gospel to me
especially the acapella. Brave. Impressive for a singer-songwriter to be
so gripping. Most desparately need bands ro flesh out the songs. A band
here might distract from the substance." (Battle of the Bands Contest Judge, LaF won the first round in a BAND contest as a SOLO artist)
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Santa Fe New Mexico’s Laurianne Fiorentino has been described as the “Georgia O’Keeffe of music”. She "plays her guitar at once like a drum, a bass and a bell...she creates multi-layered rhythms with her music...her songs are concerned with driving forces...she sings with a broad, deep voice which at times sounds rough and ready, at others, soft and lush like a long velvet dress." Most of her work is “place oriented” though it is said that “Where Laurianne writes from has no address” - a message that is sparse and universal.
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"Most people can't imagine soaring like an eagle through the hot lava steam of an erupting volcano but then, most people can't sing with a quiet that gently pushes the moon from big round to see you later."
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Laurianne Fiorentino was chosen as a semi-finalist in the nation-wide LILITH FAIR/LEVI-STRAUSS EMERGING ACOUSTIC MUSIC TALENT SEARCH before she released her debut live CD “THE MATCH”.
ACOUSTIC ARTIST OF THE YEAR NOMINEE (NAS) Fiorentino has been dubbed a "traditional original". Her solo concert CD 'THE MATCH' was nominated BEST OF THE YEAR by the New Mexico Music Industry Coalition. Laurianne was also selected to participate in the FOLKRAWL concert series in Memphis, playing to a full house at B.B. King's Blues Club. She was a critics’ pick at NXNE In Toronto.
A second CD release entitled “WINDHORSE RISING” (pure and improvised) features Fiorentino on Native American Bamboo Flute (exquisitely hand-crafted with East Indian Chakra intentions, and alignments with equinoxes and solstices by Ingrid Burg of Albuquerque, NM) accompanied by Michael Kott.
A startling and dynamic (seasoned) live performer, Laurianne is also an accomplished, multi-instrumentalist studio musician. She plays bass on folk-legend ERIK DARLING's latest Folk Era CD, and has several film soundtrack credits playing bass, harmonica, Mexican ocarina, and Native American bamboo flute. On the Paul Davids production of "TIMOTHY LEARY’S DEAD", Fiorentino plays harmonica; on the soundtrack to “TRAIL OF THE PAINTED PONIES narrated by Ali MacGraw, she plays Native American Bamboo Flute; and she has also performed on recordings by Michael Stearns, the soundtrack composer for the classic wordless film “BARAKA”. Stearns mastered Fiorentino's "THE MATCH" CD.
In Santa Fe, Fiorentino is also a music promoter and sound technician. She has facilitated and produced concerts by international touring artists like Yair Dalal (Isreali peace activist), Chirgilchin (Tuvan throat singing champions) and Sloan Wainwright (USA).
Before re-locating to New Mexico and digging into her solo work, Fiorentino was based out of Northampton, MA. She was playing the organ by age four and was self-taught on guitar and harmonica by age eleven. From touring Europe in a classical choir, earning a self-designed BA from UMASS on Right-Left Brain Studies (including three years of classical music and jazz studies), then hit the road as a professional blues/R&B/comic musician playing electric bass and delivering lead vocals.
She studied classical & jazz theory and history with avant-guarde saxaphone legend Archie Shepp, and voice with Mitch Chakour (keyboard & guitarist for Joe Cocker) and within 6 months playing professional electric blue bass, she was in an act opening for Jonathan Edwards and The Pousette Dart band at The Lonestar in NYC.
Laurianne has appeared onstage in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada and USA with Bill Morrissey, Jeff Lang, Chris Smither, Declan Sinnott, John Spillane and Cliff Barnes, premiere OZ blues band CHAIN and L’IL FI, Louise Taylor, Susan Werner, Barbara Kessler, and Richard Shindell; and Hello Sailor’s Harry Lyon of New Zealand.
International Festivals where Fiorentino has been featured have been Australia's Port Fairy Folk Festival, Woodford Folk Festival, Canberra Folk Festival, and she was a hit at at Tasmania's First Roots & Blues Festival in Hobart; Ireland's Sprai Festival of Waterford; and Toronto's NXNE Conference.
In addition to her skills as a musician, Laurianne Fiorentino has been a professional immuno-therapist (allergy technician), potter, graphic-artist-designer/photographer, Alaskan salmon fisherperson, leather-tooling artist and music/voice/bass/guitar teacher and resident songwriting instructor. She is also a published journalist, acrylic painter, tour-guide and Ortho-Bionomy healing arts practitioner.
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ONSTAGE TONIGHT - TORONTO
Every once in a while, one comes across a "different" artist, and I wanted to start your day by recommending you discover Laurianne Fiorentino. She's from New Mexico, she's just finished a lengthy Australian tour, and she's coming through Toronto on her way to Ireland, where she's taking on her second tour in the last nine months. Laurianne's a tough, commited singer-songwriter with some particularly powerful material; she's not an angry feminist (a la Ani di Franco, for instance), but she's positive and strong, and well worth bringing to the attention of festival bookers. As those of you who know me well ought to know by now, I don't hype people needlessly - especially when they don't pay me to do so!
I first heard Laurianne a year ago at NXNE; now she's back again, with her performance skills well enhanced by her continual work in Oz. I think she's a special artist, and I'd love it if more people could discover her. She's scheduled for 10 p.m. tonight (Thursday) at Oasis on College near Spadina in Toronto. Last time I heard from her she'd started the drive from Maine, where she was staying overnight with her folks; it's a long drive for a 40-minute showcase, and it would be nice if those within hailing distance came to hear her! NXNE showcases usually run on time, and if Laurianne and her beat-up truck get across the border in the wee hours tonight (and it's 2:30 a.m. as I'm writing this, and I'm still waiting to hear from her!), she'll be on form and on-stage by 10 p.m. Cheers, Richard
Above From Richard Flohil, Publicist (k.d.Lang, Loreena McKennitt, Bruce Coburn, Daniel Lanois) Toronto, ON
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I have enjoyed the CD's tremendously. The voice- the range, drama, DICTION (thank you so much, I can UNDERSTAND the words!). The lyrics- imaginative, thought provoking, image encouraging. I love particularly the a capella stuff, and Woman's Word ( I"m very partial to drones), and Simple as the Sun-- not because I don't like guitar or harmonica (or flute-how moving my gosh), but because your voice is so compelling, I want to hear it by itself. And there are so few who can do that well, musically, subtly. Fantastic, especially from a live concert! And of course improv is close to my heart. Thanks for the artistry!
Jane Buttars, Music For People Instructor, Princeton NJ
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DIRTY LINEN Magazine CD REVIEW -Folk & World Music (below)
Two recent releases from newcomer Laurianne Fiorentino show diverse sides of a very talented artist. On THE MATCH, Fiorentino displays her considerable talents as a singer/songwriter and solo acoustic performer. Her vocals, whether rising high or reaching deep, whether spoken, whispered, or sung, convey emotion and passion with a sense of urgency. The album was recorded live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and reveals an artist who is unafraid to follow her instincts. In stark contrast is the more recent WINDHORSE RISING, an instrumental offering featuring Fiorentino playing Native American Flute with accompaniment from cellist Michael Kott. The two complement one another with occasional lead changes (though the flute provides the primary voice) and eerily eerily effective percussion from Kott's cello. The result is a spacious recording that sounds very free and improvised while remaining true to the spirit of the Native traditions from which Fiorentino's instrument originated - ACE
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"Laurianne holds the mountains in both hands and rolls in the melody of the high desert. These songs carry the grit of Earth and the heady flow of the tidal basin of human experience."
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SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA
The Match
Laurianne Fiorentino
Concert/CD Sydney University
In my office on Monday, and I get a call from a friend:
"There's this woman playing the most beautiful song, I think you'd like her, come over and review it."
A ten minute walk across Sydney Uni to get to Laurianne Fiorentino's Wentworth Week gig, and, unfortunately for me, she's not that self-indulgent as to still be playing that song. However, I catch the end of her set and am impressed enough to want to write something, so I grab a copy of her CD.
Spontaneous concert experiences can be deceiving, a folk singer on stage at a free barbecue, on a beautiful sunny day, in the middle of winter, and I should be in my office - of course I'm going to be impressed. Surprisingly enough when I go back to the office, put on the CD, and continue drudging through my day, I find that it isn't such a drudge any more, and I can't concentrate on work because of this wonderful CD deserves more of my attention. Daggy, huh?
Still.
Laurianne Fiorentino, by the looks of her bio, has a complex musical background. She plays bass, guitar, organ, Native American bamboo flute, Mexican ocarina and harmonica and her history includes choral work, playing jazz, blues, classical, folk and doing soundtracks. Her CD, The Match, is a showcase of all these talents, yet avoids being some kind of ad-hoc, junction of work.
The album has a wonderful sense of completion, and her songs have been sensibly chosen, giving a good sense of who she is and what she can achieve. Bearing in mind that her styles are so mixed as to appeal to multiple audiences, Fiorentino has maintained a basic pop or folk theme, and worked through it some of her other genres, a tactic which works well to create a very accessible album.
Fiorentino’s bass playing and choral backgrounds are perhaps the most apparent here. She enjoys a simple guitar-tapping pattern or bass-line over which she hangs her seamless and mellow vocal style. Her lyrics are at once dramatic and elegant, and she is true to her singer-songwriter role with some suitably angst-ridden pieces. What appeals is her capacity to deliver these words with a deceptive amount of frankness and lucidity Ð she could be pouring her blood into a vase and handing it to you, or she could just be commenting on the weather.
There are probably three tracks that are "stand-outs" on the CD Ð though it must be noted that there are nÕt any songs on this album that disappoint, an achievement in itself Ð "Simple as the Sun", "Following Tomas" and the last track, which is unlisted and presumably gives the CD its name.
"Simple as the Sun" was the last song that she sang at the Sydney Uni gig, and despite being distracted by her flagrant refusal to rhyme the word "heart" with "fart" during the many opportunities that the song creates, it was the real clincher as far as I was concerned. It might as well be her theme song, a very basic rhythm tapped out on the guitar while she distills her complex lyrics with her smooth vocal treatment.
"Following Tomas" is the one bamboo flute instrumental on the album and would tempt even the greatest cynic to start visiting new age bookshops.
The final track is a collaboration with John Bartlit, who provides the music, while Fiorentino tells a weird old dream story over the top. You can add storytelling to list.
As far as I know Laurianne Fiorentino is touring about Australia til September. Keep your eye out in the press, and head to her website if you want more details.
By Melanie Parkinson, Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
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"No list of attributes does justice to the music of Laurianne Fiorentino. One might as well say: the river, the pond, the lake the mountain stream, the glacial runoff, trees in autumn like the fireworks of the last gasping empire of summer, mountains of hills on mesas of ocean bottom in canyons through deserts who's ceiling reaches the farthest galaxy still visible on a clear, moonless, wilderness midnight."
