Ophelia of the Spirits: Vocals/Piano
Michael Bridges: Electric Violin/Musical Saw/Irish Banjo
Simon Slee: Bass
Fabian Hevia: Drums / Percussion
Marty Hailey: Guitar
Influences
Music: Arcade Fire, Arkarna, Arvo Part, Bernard Hermann, Beth Orton, Bjork, Brian Eno, Brooke Fraser, Carter Burwell, Cat Power, Claude Debussy, Cocteau Twins, The Corrs, Craig Armstrong, David Gray, Dead Can Dance, Delerium, Dido, DJ Shadow, Enigma, Ennio Morricone, Enya, Eric Satie, Evanescence, Fiona Apple, Frederick Chopin, Garbage, Gorecki, Igor Stravinsky, James Newton Howard, Jane Siberry, Jimmy Webb, Joanna Newsom, John Brion, Kate Bush, Lamb, Led Zeppelin, Lisa Gerrard, Loreena McKennitt, Massive Attack, Maurice Ravel, Miranda Sex Garden, Muse, Nick Cave, Nick Drake, Nine Inch Nails, Nino Rota, Oasis, Peter Gabriel, PJ Harvey, Portishead, Rachmaninoff, Radiohead, Sarah McLachlan, Sia, Silverchair, Snow Patrol, The Sugarcubes, Tchaikovsky, The Tea Party, Thomas Newman, Tool, Tori Amos, Unkle, Yann Tiersen
Cinema: Adaptation, Alice in Wonderland (Jonathon Miller, BBC), An American in Paris, As It Is in Heaven, Bad Boy Bubby, La Belle et La Bete (Jean Cocteau), The Blood of a Poet (Jean Cocteau), Capote, Casablanca, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Cinema Paradiso, Dancer In The Dark, 8 1/2, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Eyes Without A Face, Gone With The Wind, La Strada, La Dolce Vita, Life is Beautiful, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Magdalene Sisters, Magnolia, Marie Antoinette (Sophia Coppola), Moulin Rouge, My Fair Lady, Orpheus (Jean Cocteau), Pandora's Box (GW Pabst), Pan's Labyrinth, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Punch Drunk Love, Romeo & Juliet (Baz Luhrmann), Singing In The Rain, The Sound of Music, Testament of Orpheus (Jean Cocteau), Thoroughly Modern Millie, Threepenny Opera (GW Pabst), The Virgin Suicides, Wings of Desire, The Wizard of Oz
Books: Oscar Wilde "The Picture of Dorian Gray", GK Chesterton "The Man Who Was Thursday", Lewis Carroll "Through The Looking Glass" & "Alice in Wonderland", Paulo Coelho “The Witch of Portobello” & “The Alchemist”, Carl Jung “Man & His Symbols”, Irene Nemirovsky "Suites Francaise", Jean-Paul Sartre "Being and Nothingness", Leo Tolstoy "Anna Karenina", Enid Blyton "The Faraway Tree Stories", Bram Stoker “Dracula”, Jane Austen “Pride & Prejudice” & “Emma”, Jean Cocteau "Diary of a Film"
Paintings: Claude Monet, Salvador Dali, MC Escher, Michelangelo, John William Waterhouse, Raphael
Other Things: Cirque du Soleil, Carnivale (HBO), Impressionism, Romanticism, Surrealism, Philosophy, Psychology, Gothic architecture, the plays of Shakespeare
Sounds Like
FOR ALL MANAGEMENT AND BOOKING ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT THOMAS HEYMANN: thomasheymann@themusicconnection.com.au
Copy this code to your website to display this banner!
Clicking on the banner above will take you to Ophelia's secure online store to purchase the EP as a CD or download.
YOU CAN ORDER YOUR CD COPY OF THE EP FROM ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD! via PayPal at www.opheliaofthespirits.com/store.
The EP is also available as a download from iTunes store in Australia AND worldwide. Follow the link from www.opheliaofthespirits.com/store to buy.
VISIT OPHELIA OF THE SPIRITS ON FACEBOOK:
*************************************************
The great playwright William Shakespeare once said,
“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.”
Each of us inhabits many different characters over the course of a lifetime, weaving a delicate web of stories and half-told truths, treading a precarious path somewhere between the real and the imagined. Ophelia of the Spirits is a singer, composer & pianist who stepped into the warm glow of the footlights with the release of her debut EP in 2008, which received airplay on Triple J, ABC, and community radio stations around Australia.
This early success was followed in November by the news that Ophelia of the Spirits was the singer and co-writer of the major love song from Baz Luhrmann’s epic film “Australia”, “By The Boab Tree,” which she performed for the end credits of the film. This track is now available on iTunes worldwide on the "Australia (Music from the Film) EP".
The brainchild and alter-ego of film composer Angela Little, Ophelia of the Spirits’ name derives from a marriage of characters from the works of Shakespeare and Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. In the Shakespearian tragedy Hamlet, Lady Ophelia, Hamlet’s love, falls to her death from the branches of a weeping willow tree. She is found drowned in the river below, surrounded by flowers she had been weaving into garlands before she fell. It is never known whether her death was an accident or suicide. Fellini’s 1965 film ‘Giulietta degli Spiriti’ (Juliet of the Spirits) tells the story of a woman trapped in a loveless marriage who begins a process of spiritual awakening, experiencing unsettling surrealist visions; a reborn Alice in Wonderland following her subconscious further and further down the rabbit hole.
Influenced as much by folk melodies as by French Impressionists like Eric Satie, or by the weighty ambience of artists like Led Zeppelin and Massive Attack, Ophelia of the Spirits is constantly striving to transcend the perceived barriers between genres, and indeed between different artforms themselves - deriving from film, theatre, ballet, opera, and visual art, her inspiration is underpinned by the belief that all artforms are by nature intertwined. Her spiritual connection with her music is also inextricably linked with her Buddhist philosophy and practice, and her ultimate desire to help people transform darkness into a deep well of strength and hope.
After a busy 2008 which saw her co-composing Additional Music for Baz Luhrmann's “Australia” over a period of 6 months, as well as performing shows in Sydney and Melbourne , Ophelia of the Spirits is back in the studio recording a new album due for release in 2009, and performing her music with her band of jolly minstrels. With a show which features instruments like the electric violin, the musical saw, the Irish banjo, and Tibetan singing bowls, all underpinned by haunting cinematic soundscapes and trance-like visual projections of beauty, horror and wonder, Ophelia’s live show fuses elements of music, sound and vision to take the audience on a journey rarely experienced.
OPHELIA OF THE SPIRITS - "A PRETTY PIECE"
LIVE @ THE BASEMENT
OPHELIA OF THE SPIRITS - "GREEDY"
PRELUDE: EXCERPT FROM "MOONLIGHT SONATA"
LIVE @ THE BASEMENT
"HOUSE OF CARDS"
FEATURING AN EXCERPT FROM GW PABST'S 'PANDORA'S BOX'
OPHELIA OF THE SPIRITS @ THE BASEMENT
Photography by Smurfun & Ben Walker
OPHELIA OF THE SPIRITS EP LAUNCH @ THE VANGUARD
Photography by Dean Hammer
Hey Ophelia! I am listening to your new addition 'Black is the color.' So beautiful!!! Gonna have to focus on hearing the lyrics. My speakers aren't very good. Good to see you are making progress in your studio! :D I was recently on your website and was skimming through The Mysterious Life Of Ophelia. I am definately going to comment on your publishings! :D I cant wait!
As always, I wish you well with all you do. You are in my thoughts. Dante
Hi Ophelia, Love the new song and also all the others you have up. Had a wonderful listening time of your songs. Just beautiful! wonderful to see your success! Your friend, Cindy
GREETZ TO YOU! IT HAS BEEN SOME TIME SINCE I HAVE COMMENTED,YOUR MUSIC IS WONDERFUL AND GREAT TO LISTEN TO,KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND CREATIVENESS,I HOPE YOU WILL GO FAR AND MORE PEOPLE ADD YOU...ALWAYS BE POSITIVE IN LIFE,ALWAYS TRY TO SMILE AND LAUGH EACH DAY,IT IS GOOD FOR YOU AND MAY YOU ALWAYS BE BLESSED IN LIFE... ----FROM THE TITANMAN----GEORGE,
Thanks for adding me to your circle of friends Your music is very nice is exactly my taste. I wish you much success and also fun with your projects All the Best for You !!! Greetings from Germany Orientchill
Ophelia! I apologize for taking a little more than a month to respond. These past few months have been chaotic as I had to direct and help out with the adapted Peter Pan play that I wrote. We just performed it last night with amazing success and about 250 people came to my small high school. And you are completely right: one can get stuck in their own creative world! :) It's been stressful and hard as help is difficult to come by in a small place like this, almost to the point of me wanting to cancel the play. But I have to say one thing to you: your profile on one of your websites (I forget which) has a song up called "Like Rain" and I must say that whenever I felt like this play was never going to get done, this song inspired me with this set of lyrics: "Goodbye fear You've held my hand for many years But it's time to let go Now it's time to watch you float Away from here" These lyrics helped me more than you can imagine. I've always been one of those people in the background who were too afraid to do something that seems impossible. But your lyrics kept me going and thank you SO MUCH. I am truely blessed to have accidentally found you on Myspace. I knew there was a reason why we talk the way we do. Thank you once again, Ophelia! -Lisa
Ophelia!<br /><br />I just watched the movie "Australia" for the first time and I heard your song "By The Boab Tree" at the end credits.<br />I loved it right away! I felt overjoyed for you in the sense that people around the world can hear your work and voice through that movie. I'm very proud of you and I cannot wait to see or listen to your future projects! <br /><br /><3 -Lisa
thnx for the add! i really love that song =] it'd would be awesome if u can add it to ur play list so i can add it to my profile and all my friends can see it lol =] PLEASE!?
Thanks very much, thats a michael stipe quote that just rang true to me. Love 'By the Boab Tree' by the way, it's the best thing about Australia. Thats the film of course, not the country.
Hey ! Thank you for your comment and for the add ! I like your music and I hope Ophelia's poem would inspire you.. Regards, good vibes from Germany (Dorsten) SuperRoo and Friends
Online Now!
