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

DAVE BIANCHI – THE SUBURBS OF SALT

The Suburbs of Salt

Artist : Dave Bianchi

Release Date : March 30, 2010

Label : Whatabout Music

Format : CD

Recorded and mixed by Dave Bianchi at Emergency Room Studio (Barcelona). All songs written, arranged, and produced by Dave Bianchi, except Nerves (Amanda Jayne), Bricklessness (Duffy O’Brick), and God (Tori Amos)

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For The Suburbs of Salt (2010), Dave Bianchi decided to simplify – Salt was recorded with a band of just 10 musicians. Strings, horns, orchestration, the incredible drum work of Oriol Roca, and a guest vocal slot from singer/songwriter Leslie Helpert; the album also features a cover of the Tori Amos song “God,” as well as original recordings of Amanda Jayne’s “Nerves” and “Bricklessness” written by british poet and artist Duffy O’Brick.

 

  • Dave Bianchi : guitars, voice, piano, random instruments
  • Oriol Roca : drums
  • Ivo Saint : violin, viola
  • Sasha Agranov : cello
  • Miguel Serna : double bass, electric bass
  • Leslie Helpert: vocals
  • Paul Sessions : tuba
  • Yally Streett : bassoon
  • Antonia Tejeda : baroque recorder
  • Marc Mena : trumpet

 

www.whatabout-music.com

March 8, 2015

LESLIE HELPERT – ULU

Ulu

Artist : Leslie Helpert

Release Date : November 24, 2009

Label : Whatabout Music

Format : CD

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On Ulu Helpert conspired with musicians from Spain, Greece, Guinea, Israel, Portugal and California to add cello, harp, Gaida (Greek bagpipes), upright and electric basses, vocals, trumpet and drum-kit to her musings. Helpert’s musicality comes through on the release in the form of guitar, Rhodes piano, electric bass, percussion, beatboxing, and her effusive vocals. Throughout Ulu, Helpert draws you in with her intoxicating style, using music a modality to deliver art into the moment. “Young Coconut Water”, the EP’s single, embodies this dreamy elegance.

 

“An ULU is an all-utilitarian tool Inuit women inherit to carry out many tasks in their daily lives, from chiseling ice for igloos to cutting their children’s hair. whatever dowry a man is promised in wedding an inuit woman, and whatever possessions she must hand over to him, no one can take— desire nor request—her Ulu.
I traipsed to Barcelona, stumbled into intoxicating love and adventure, wrestled burglars, buffered my immune system: made this EP with Dave Bianchi on Barcelona’s label Whatabout Music.” Leslie Helpert

 

  • Leslie Helpert: electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, random organ, noise
  • Oriol Roca: drums
  • Giulia Valle : double bass
  • Miguel Serna : bass
  • Nicholas Talvola : trumpet
  • Mû : vocals
  • Sasha Agranov : cello
  • Dimitris from greece : guida

 

www.helperttheagency.com

July 18, 2016

WHATABOUT MUSIC: THE FIRST 7 YEARS

Whatabout Music: The First 7 Years

Artist : Various artists
Release Date : October 15, 2013
Label : Whatabout Music
Format : Digital

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A hand-picked compilation of 32 tracks from the first 7 years of Whatabout Music. The label started in 2006 in Barcelona, and now has 37 bands with 60 albums. Here is a selection of tracks recorded between 2006 – 2013

 

Oriol Roca appears on the following tracks:

 

  • Introduction (by Dave Bianchi)
  • Seule (by Tal Ben Ari)
  • The Body Electric (by Leslie Helpert)
  • I’m Coming (by Samantha de Siena)
  • All These Facts Are True (by Dave Bianchi)
  • Insert (by MUT Trio)
  • Blues For Brnc (by Marc Mena Quartet)
  • Camino A La Nave (by Piccola Orchestra Gagarin)

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