Showing posts with label Silva Lining. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silva Lining. Show all posts

Saturday, 25 January 2025

Filiah - Michele Ducci - Silva Lining - Sofia Härdig - Coley Kennedy

Filiah - Atlas.

Emerging as a deeply personal single ‘Atlas’ chronicles Filiah’s journey through creative paralysis to artistic rebirth. Following her 2022 release For Someone, Filiah found herself trapped in the exhausting cycle of self-management – from booking shows to handling her own PR. The weight of wearing every hat eventually crushed her creative spirit, leading to a complete musical shutdown. The turning point came unexpectedly on the Croatian coast, where welovemelodies, an artists' collective, invited her to a songwriting retreat. "Before writing 'Atlas' I was on a 2-year hiatus from my own music," Filiah reveals. "I felt emotionally and physically exhausted, burnt out and going through a lot of changes and challenges in my personal life."

Surrounded by fellow creators, Filiah found her voice again. The result is 'Atlas' – a masterclass in turning pain into poetry. Here, her powerful vocals float over intricate indie-folk arrangements, while she crafts a meta-narrative about the very thing that silenced her. It's a delicate balance of vulnerability and strength, where writer's block becomes both subject and vanquished foe. In writing about what stopped her from writing, Filiah hasn't just broken her silence – she's transformed it into something beautiful. 'Atlas' stands as both confession and triumph, marking the moment when a promising artist finds her feet again, this time with the support she's long deserved."It was inspired by feelings of self-doubt and the struggle to meet both personal and external expectation," explains Filiah. "It explores the feeling of thinking you're never enough, wired all wrong and struggling to believe that someone will ever get you, while simultaneously wanting nothing more than just to be yourself."

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Michele Ducci - Even Before.

‘Even Before’ is the second single from the ‘live in the studio’ album ‘NUBA Live Tape’, by Michele Ducci. The album contains alternative versions of 3 tracks from his debut album, ‘SIVE’, released in June 2024, along with 4 new songs. ‘Even Before’ starts as an upbeat Samba played on a Bontempi keyboard, a sunny love song with an uplifting chorus: 

“Sunshine
Rain falling
I know what my love means
When the day rises
And I was smiling even before”

The track then slows into a dreamy waltz for the outro. Letizia Mandolesi’s bright backing vocals in the chorus and delicate sighs in the outro beautifully accentuate Ducci’s warm melodic vocals. Accompanying the single is a cosmic animated video created by Ducci and Mandolesi. About the song, Ducci says, “Even Before was born in scenes, as a movie. I had found a ten euro Bontempi keyboard and I let it do almost everything, playing it all live together with Letizia.

I have been reflecting for a long time on the absolute of change: it gives itself as an inverted perspective. It’s like a chorus in a song: coexistence of past and present, of a past that insists on a present that coexists with it and that, passing by, is the intrusion of an unpredictable novelty. You always find yourself in the middle of an act that was already in action before it was done and that, being fulfilled, becomes something that is no longer possible but fatally real. Deja: Jamais: Encore. It is an eternal return that is like a magical infinitesimal calculation, lived in the depths of what I call myself. It is the experience, the passage, that resonates in its immediate data like a chorus: an ocean of sive, of ‘that is’, that are the foundation of every ‘where’ and every ‘when’, as in the passages between verse and chorus: an incessant translation into, which is a crossing, not an impasse, but an impassage: an even before to which we must go back to probe the experience in its immediate data. It is an experience of variation that is done at the limit, near infinity.

Letizia and I drew the video by hand, and it is a sort of twin of the song: a cosmic paraeidolia…the experience that makes itself felt in the foreground like a procession of faces still in the making: a chorus. The song as a sort of paramnestic paraeidolia of creative evolution. All of my work is all about that.”

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Silva Lining - Only Today.

Silva Lining's first single of 2025, "Only Today," starts off with a bang. This Latin Rock-inspired track features snappy brass riffs, energetic percussion, and plenty of solos—just the way they love it! The upbeat nature of the song contrasts with its somber message: one person in a couple wants to end the relationship but lacks the courage to do so. This song is the second duet in the band's repertoire, with Tiago and Catarina sharing the main vocals, all accompanied by that classic Silva Lining big band sound.

Born in Lisbon, raised in London. Born in London, raised in Lisbon. Three generations, two cities, one family. Nuno, Catarina and Tiago, Portuguese roots with English charm fused to create the Silva Lining Band.

Most people would say less is more… but not when it comes to the Silva family. The more the merrier is the family motto and Silva Lining is no exception with the band’s debut album “Lisboa” including over 12 musicians spanning various genres ranging from Funk to Swing Jazz to Rock.

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Sofia Härdig - Pale Fire.

Multi-instrumentalist and genre-defying artist Sofia Härdig continues to push boundaries with her latest single 'Pale Fire,' a mesmerising collaboration with renowned musician Bebe Risenfors (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello)

The track emerged from an intense period of creative isolation during which Härdig wrote hundreds of songs. "I wrote on my own in solitude for almost two years. I read a lot, wrote a lot, and recorded more than hundred of songs," Härdig recalls. "I was in this cave of writing.” The magic of 'Pale Fire' crystallised when Risenfors, who spontaneously joined Härdig for a performance in Malmö, added his distinctive touch to her original demo. "I remember opening the song on my phone and listening on headphones while sitting in a park. I started crying and listened on repeat. The best birthday gift ever," says Härdig of first hearing Risenfors' contributions.

'Pale Fire' showcases Härdig's signature sound, which draws influence from alternative rock, post-punk, and New Wave, while maintaining her distinct artistic voice. The track is part of a larger body of work that represents what Härdig describes as "the tip of the iceberg of a long cycle of lyrics, often a novel/short story that I have built in solitude." Anchored by brooding piano work and haunting chord progressions, 'Pale Fire' unleashes the full force of Härdig's commanding vocals while highlighting her masterful touch as both producer and songwriter. The single is accompanied by striking visuals created in collaboration with a close friend and photographer Jessica Nettelblatt, who was so moved by the demo that she immediately envisioned the cover art, listening to the track on repeat during the photoshoot. For fans of Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, and Anna Calvi, 'Pale Fire' further cements Sofia Härdig's position as one of Sweden's most compelling alternative artists.

Her upcoming album Lighthouse of Glass, self-produced by Härdig, represents a bold step forward in her artistic evolution. Recorded between her home studio and a three-week residency at Visby Center for Composers, the album features an impressive roster of collaborators. The recording process became a unique blend of creativity and community, with Härdig's kitchen and tin roof serving as unconventional meeting points for the musicians. "Working with Bebe was such a treat - he really got what I was after," Härdig explains. The album also features contributions from two of Sweden's finest guitarists, Robert Johnsson (Robert Johnson and the Punchdrunks) and long-time collaborator John Essing (Bob Hud), with Grammy-awarded Nille Perned handling the mixing duties.

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Coley Kennedy - Neptune Blue (Album).

Coley Kennedy (known for his work with the bands Welcome to Ashley and Black Vincent), who is currently based in Jackson, Michigan, released his solo debut Neptune Blue just a week ago.
 
Neptune Blue collects seven Coley originals and a cover of "Don't Let Your Hunger Die" by Justin Collins (Justin and the Cosmics) and continues his path of producing stylish post-punk, this time with an emphasis on 80's synth pop and new wave. 

The album features contributions from Welcome to Ashley's Pete Javier, Scott Collins (The Smoking Flowers), Marie Vavro, Larry Roy Sumner Jr., and Jennifer Kennedy.


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The Hengles - Books of Moods

The Hengles - Cover Up (Album). Experience a trip down memory lane with The Hengles' latest album, Cover Up. This Dutch indie band revi...