songs and improvs = with Steve Noble (drums), John Edwards (double bass), Hannah Marshall (cello), Steve Beresford (piano/electronics)...
ROME
electroset with Daniele de Santis (drums)
NEW ZEALAND
albums/tours with David Long (guitar), Jeffrey Henderson (sax) & Tom Callwood (bass), Ricky Gooch (drums) Chris O'Connor (drums), Nick Gaffaney (drums), Rick Cranson (drums), Francesca Mountfort (cello), Chris Palmer (guitar), Lucien Johson (sax) and Nick Van Dyk (tuba)
Influences
Howlin' Wolf, Bessie Smith, Indonesian Gamelan, Claude Debussey, Dimitri Shostakovich, Slint, PJ Harvey, Stravinsky, Galena Ustvolskaya, Mark Rothko, Tartovsky, Einsturzende Neubauten, Primo Levi, Ingmar Bergmann, YOU
Sounds Like
Reviewers have compared Leila Adu to: Nina Simone, Bjork, Ute Lempe, PJ Harvey, Stereolab, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Astrud Gilberto, Fiona Apple, Nico....[(i.e. basically any female artist, who is equally uncategorisable, that a reviewer can think of at the time) Actually, Mark Braby finally compared her to a man, Tim Buckley, which she was rather chuffed about.]
DARK JOAN, the new solo album recorded and mixed in Chicago with the legendary Steve Albini (PJ Harvey, Joanna Newsome, Nirvana) is OUT NOW in the UK on Frizz Records!
"Her voice is extraordinaryboth tender and terrifying" -Sunday Star Times
Sounding like hot treacle on broken glass, Leila Adu has been described as "Nina Simone for the noughties". Praised by critics and fans alike, Leila Adu explores the dissonant edges of familiar forms with a voice that is simply incomparable.
London-born with a heritage both European and Ghanaian, Leila was brought up in New Zealand. She has appeared with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and produced two acclaimed albums, which led to national tours in Australia, Indonesia, U.K. and Russia. Since returning to Europe in 2006, Leila performed both solo with piano and with her live band at various venues in London, as well as recordings from The Orchestra Pit and live studio sessions and interviews on BBC World Service, Rai 3 (Italian National Radio), Radio Citta Aperta and Resonance fm. In 2009, Leila is performing in NZ, New York, Europe and will tour the UK as part of the Frizz Records Dark Joan UK Album Release Tour.
NEWS
— Music video planned for latest mystery single
— Recording dates for new full-length, solo album for Italian based label, Rai Trade
— ‘Cherry Pie’ single to be released on The Orchestra Pit’s first compilation CD
ALBUMS: CHERRY PIE (2005) Produced by David Long (winner of Producer of the Year Award 2001 and sound designer on Lord of the Rings) with some of New Zealands top musicians. "Curiously compelling . . . Centred on her percussive piano playing and an astonishing voice theres little I can compare it to. -National Radio. "If you havent already aquainted yourself with Adu, go do it." ****1/2-Dominion Post
DIG A HOLE (2003) Leilas debut album received rave reviews both in New Zealand and Australia from the media and audiences alike. The 'I'm Calling' single and video clip played on both student and National Radio stations and on NZ Televsion. "She has a hypnotic voice, moderately spiced, sprinkled in firewater. Some call it sultry, and it is, but its also heavy and soothing and gets under your skin in the most welcoming way."-Beat Magazine (Melbourne)
Hiya, thanks for being a friend - I enjoyed visiting YourSpace :-) Keep it up May your life be full of love, light and fun... hugs SOREN - Beats for change - NYERTUN
....FRIZZ RECORDS is proud to announce our fourth LP release...
LEILA ADU has been described as 'A Nina Simone for the Noughties', and her two acclaimed albums infuse a broadly 'art-rock' approach with elements of torch song, speakeasy blues, avant garde jazz, gamelan, post-rock textures, and a David Lynch style dreamlike b-movie melodrama. As her website has it, exploring the "dissonant edges of familiar forms", but with that kind of 'dissonance' that they once accused Thelonious Monk or Debussy of, the kind that soon betrays it's own compelling melodic and harmonic logic to the attentive listener...
'Dark Joan', Leila's third album as a solo artist, was recorded in Chicago with the legendary Steve Albini (PJ Harvey, Joanna Newsome, Nirvana, Pixies), and Albini's genius has been to strip her sound back to it's essence, and hold it's most distinctive qualities up to the light. It doesn't hurt that this is by far Leila's most powerful set of songs to date, and if anything we are lead even deeper into her world by the pictures painted with just piano (or in some cases harpsichord or a grime-encrusted electric piano) and that voice...
Capable of anything from delicate heartbreaking purity to a fearsome dramatic power, her powers are seemingly limitless, yet unlike most other singers of her calibre, never does she resort to melodrama or show-boating, or any kind of pastiche, instead she employs her resources fully in the expression of her distinctive musical vision and the deep well-spring of her imagination. Nothing ever sounds as though it could have not been sung...
Thursday 29th October @ 7.30pm - (Roshi feat. Pars Radio album launch) @ The Flea Pit, 49 Columbia Road, London, E2 7RG. Cost: £4 launch night for the ’The Sky And The Caspian Sea’, the debut album from Roshi feat. Pars Records, on GEO Records (myspace.com/roshisongs / myspace.com/georecordsuk). Support comes from Rothko man Mark Beazley’s Signals, Gideon Coe favourites Hong In The 60s, and Orchestra Pit/Scaledown impresario Mark Braby’s new project Damp Matchbox.
Friday 30th October @ 7pm SCALEDOWN co-presents a SARTORIAL RECORDS special, upstairs @ The King & Queen, 1 Foley Street, London, W1W 6DL. Cost: £0 (donations welcome(d)) okay, so it’s Scaledown Friday as we actually all dress up in our best whistles for a night of music featuring Terry Edwards alongwith artists from his Sartorial roster + our own guests. Full bill: Terry Edwards & Simon Charterton, Micko Westmoreland, Ian R. Watson, Pete Marsh & Pete May, Bob Constant & The Goodbye Horses, Iris Garrelfs and Damp Matchbox. Further details can be found @ http:www.theorchestrapit.com/scaledown.
....FRIZZ RECORDS is proud to announce our third LP release...
"Anutha Kinda Brotha" is the debut LP from underground legend ART TERRY. Since moving to the UK from his native Los Angeles in the early 90s, Mr Terry has established himself as one of London's characters.
Describing Art's sound to the uninitiated usually involves debunking some of the stereotypes of what the 'typical' black Californian might play. Despite his jazz training, and coming of age to the sounds of classic soul and funk, these styles are only a part of his musical vision. His fascination with folk styles, classical music, punk rock, pure pop, easy listening, musical theatre and the European avant garde have taken him on different paths from most...
The result is an orchestral pop record full of sonic inventiveness, whether it's the blend of Shuggie Otis's 60s California and Sun Ra's ancient Egypt on 'Bible', Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons leading a mariachi band on 'Escort', or the Walt Disney music box orchestra of 'Miss Dominatrix', but whilst this is very much a sonic feast, we shouldn't overlook Art's extraordinary lyrical adeptness, and the distinctive character this brings to the proceedings, with a knack for unique and colourful imagery, and how like a great short story writer he is able to paint an engaging picture whilst keeping back from casting judgement on his characters, always leaving open ends for the listener to tie; giving us the feeling that however far astray someone might have gone, there is always sympathy and human feeling for them in Art's mind...
....FRIZZ RECORDS is proud to announce our second official LP release...
"Modern Mediaeval" is the third LP from singer-songwriter DAVID GARSIDE, and the first to receive the full Frizz Records vinyl treatment. It’s also clearly the most fully-realised statement of his distinctive vision so far…
It’s an easy route to locate David in the tradition of his ‘classic’ influences (McCartney, Nick Drake, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, The Beach Boys, Love, Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel, Dexy’s…), but there are few songwriters working today that have absorbed these influences so fully, and arrived at a mature style as David has…
This is ’singer-songwriter’ music in the sense that it’s focus is on song-craft and the unfolding of the lyrical vision of a single individual, but if so then it’s definitely at the sophisticated end of the scale (’progressive’ if that term isn’t too loaded…), filed alongside ‘Bryter Layter’, ‘The Hissing Of Summer Lawns’, ‘Pretzel Logic’ or ‘Surf’s Up’...another FRIZZ RECORDS instant classic!
"Modern Mediaeval" can be downloaded from the iTunes Store
The album is also available on heavyweight vinyl LP, or on Digipack CD from www.FrizzRecords.com & all good retailers
Online Now!
{hi your self, trust Mother England is treating you well!}
