Angels Sing, Guitars Shriek and Shatter on Serena Maneesh Full-Length Debut
August 29, 2005, Honey Milk Records Norwegian Serena Maneesh present their self-titled, full-length debut Serena Maneesh with eleven songs that slide down a razors edge of distortion and pop whimsy, raucous guitar work and underwater static, angelic voices and primal screams. The strange melodies are strikingly original, yet they strike to the heart of something familiar: a classic rock guitar lick, a wound, a kiss.
Inspired by everything from Southern blues via Neu! to Gershwin, Serena Maneesh is as much about exploring sound as crafting song. Working in both horizontal and vertical layers, head musician Emil Nikolaisen creates tuneful paradoxes, infinite yet time-bound. His meticulous compositions balance whispery female vocals and underlying violin with driving guitar rock, distorted samples, and chant-like repetition. Tracks such as Sapphire Eyes begin and end in liquid noise; in between guitars shriek and shatter, angels sing, and a snare beats along in cinque-pace time.
Serena Maneesh was completed in half a year in various cities such as Chicago, (at Steve Albinis Electrical Audio studio), Oslo, New York City and Stockholm. For the album, mixed by, among others, Martin Bisi (SWANS), Nikolaisen employed several of his sisters (Elvira and Hilma), friends (Sufjan Stevens and Daniel Smith of the Danielson Famile), and solid Serena musicians Lina Holmström on female vocals, Eivind Schou on violin, Sondre Tristan Midttun on guitar, and Tommy Akerholdt on drums, among others.
On Serena Maneesh songs are written not in Norwegian but in English. The lyrics take liberties with structure and image, and fully tilt the listener upside down. Opening rocker, Drain Cosmetics expresses a longing for freedom from superficiality, and Nikolaisen interchanges verbs and nouns like glass beads on a choker. Touch my lips to speak again/ Broken six-string ring again, he sings. On Chorale Lick he sings of being, stripped naked like that lonely fall. But its not all elevated soul searching Serena Maneesh takes herself to the social ills of the street with scathing commentaries on the post-modern malaise.
Yet Serenas strange interiority is increasingly exposed on the albums journey through the beautiful and the grotesque, the broken and the restored. Intonating a mystery and a grace, a feminine reflection emerges through eleven tracks of lush pop and lonely distortion. In the refraction of this image, the shrieks of the last track of Serena Maneesh. Your Blood in Mine yield to the hushed, hymn-like tones of a piano. The pianist has forgotten himself, playing alone in a cathedral to a half-remembered song; alone but for the saints shifting in their tombs and the angels swinging by their fingertips from the ceiling chandelier.
Inmiddels zijn 200 boeken verkocht en de pers is positief over Muziekreis door het Berlijn van toen en nu - van jazzhel tot technohemel.
Duits.de: ‘Ik vind dat Jonker … die klus heel goed geklaard heeft.’ ‘Het boek is over de gehele linie - algemene geschiedenis en muziekgeschiedenis - toegankelijk geschreven en bevat talrijke anekdotes.’ ‘Alles wat langs moet komen komt dan ook langs: de jazzgekte van de jaren '20, de Schlagers van de jaren '30 en '40, Rock'n Roll, Punk, Techno - alles.’
Festivalinfo.nl: '... geeft het boek een zeer goed en uitgebreid beeld van de muziekcultuur in Berlijn.'
FONK: 'Al met al is het werkje een leuke alternatieve reisgids voor wie binnenkort naar de Duitse hoofdstad gaat. Kort, krachtig en vlot opgepend.'
Trajectum: '... is vooral voor Berlijn- én muziekfans een must voor in de trein richting Berlin Hauptbahnhof (waar je na het lezen van de eerste pagina's meteen op wilt stappen).'
Het boek is t/m 31 juli met korting online te bestellen voor EUR 14,-. Daarna geldt de normale winkelprijs van EUR 15,95. En ook in de winkels gaat het hard. Velvet Music moest al bij bestellen, nadat ze uitverkocht waren. Bestel jouw exemplaar nu!
Super awesome to have you as a friend here at our my space site. Hope you enjoy our music as much as we enjoy your friendship. K-Jell will soon start filming the new video for the song Struggle and break through and a new album will be out early next year, recordings start in September 2009 in Duper Studio in Bergen.
YOU ROCK!!! Happy 4th of JULY!! :) The song moved up on the Toyota Rock the Space Contest! Halfway 2 Neptune is in the Top!!! Play it today to keep it there and move it up! They will be choosing only 4! TELL EVERYONE!!!! XOXOXX
The slingers and I are currently in the planning stages of a fall euro tour for GR, fall euro tour for the slingers, and an early spring US slingers tour. Currently looking for other acts to join the tours; shoot me a message via the contacts below if interested. Mammoth Wave is also always looking for new artists to work with so get in touch if we can be of assistance.
best,
Shawn Glover Mammoth Wave Media 237 E. 11th Ave. Columbus, OH 43201 (419)-205-7377 shawnglover@gmail.com mammothwave@gmail.com twitter.com/MOTCA
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