March 7, 2015

LESLIE HELPERT – WHEN SMART GIRLS DO STUPID THINGS

When Smart Girls Do Stupid Things

Artist : Leslie Helpert

Release Date : March 4, 2014

Label : Whatabout Music

Format : CD

Dave Bianchi: Production, Sound-design, Recording/Engineering
Charlie Wilson: Recording, Post-Production Mixing, Mastering

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Returning to Barcelona in November of 2011, Leslie recorded this as a sort of score to a film, or a concept album. She spent one month before working in the studio with Dave field-recording the streets of Barcelona and turning the sounds of the city (street cleaners, bicycles, pedestrians, festivities) into beats and textures and base tracks for the song structures. During pre-production, Leslie wrote various thematic dialogues for the EP and recorded people reading in their own mother tongue. She wanted the album to be part parody, part emotive exploration… and what you have is “When Smart Girls Do Stupid Things”….

 

  • Leslie Helpert: Composition, Lyric, Dialogue, Monologue, Sound Design, Pre-production recording, Midi Synth, All Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Percussion, Vocals
  • Oriol Roca: Drums
  • Miguel Serna Dominguez: Contrabass and Electric Bass
  • Fran Bartlett: Cello
  • Sinead Savage: Backup Vocals, Peaches
  • Danny Lippitt: Backup Vocals, Peaches
  • Duffy O’Brick: Monologue, Peaches, Vocals on last track: “Tro(out)”

 

Spoken Dialogues: Antoine Casteignau, Eila van Reck, Amanda Jayne Wright, Andrea Cirotto

 

Technical and creative support: Leonardo Aldrey, Samuel Watkins Fisher, Taylor Rankin, Patrick Ferguson, C.K. Koch, Count Kellam, Yann de Kéroullas

 

www.helperttheagency.com

March 8, 2015

SAMANTHA DE SIENA – HERE INSIDE

Here Inside

Artist : Samantha de Siena

Release Date : May 4, 2010

Label : Whatabout Music

Format : CD

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It’s easy to imagine Samantha De Siena lost amongst the cobbled streets of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, laughing at the moon and piecing together the eight little gems that make up this bohemian dreamer’s sublime debut album, Here Inside. It’s very difficult not to fall to your knees at her feet while listening to a piece as delicate as I’m Coming. It almost sounds like a subtle mixture between the most transparent of Beth Gibbons and the most disconcerting of Cat Power.

 

  • Samantha de Siena / voice, acoustic guitar
  • Ismael Dueñas: piano, rhodes
  • Maru Di Pace: harp, acoustic guitar
  • Ivo Saint: viola, violin, handsaw, spoken word Here inside
  • Sasha Agranov: cello, saw
  • Nicholas Dominic Talvola: trumpet, flugel horn
  • Miguel Serna Dominguez: double bass, electric bass
  • Oriol Roca: drums
  • Mû: bells, pan
  • Sebastian Crispo: slide guitar
  • Borja Duñó: electric guitar
  • Marc Curcio: electric guitar
  • Danny ‘the Lip’ Lippitt: harmonica
  • Amanda Jayne: accordion
  • Paul Sessions: tuba
  • Dave Bianchi: glockenspiel
  • Pablo Arias: backing vocals
  • Rizumik: beatbox, voice, acoustic guitar

 

www.samanthadesiena.com

Press

 

A compilation of songs, as fragile and delicate as her voice, enriched with exuberant arrangements which carry us into a universe as luscious as a greenhouse garden… Her music, which isn’t easy to classify, reminds us of Joanna Newsom’s dreamy folk. Time Out Magazine (June 2010)

 

Singer-songwriter debuts with an evocative and beautifully unique voice. The music matches perfectly, reminding us of the graceful way in which Tom Waits dishevels his own albums. El Periódico (September 2010)

 

Folk, coloured by strong influences of jazz, accompanied with delicate arrangements, together paint the beautiful picture that characterises this composer. Her voice at times reminds us of Beth Gibbons from the nineties, and at other times echoes Cat Power in her first albums. Here Inside is an elegant exercise in style, and a wonderful demonstration of the spell that was cast over this city, as it gave birth to new talent within each music genre. Mondosonoro (November 2010)

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