Emilíana Torrini will perform live at The Big Chill 2009.
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Emilíana Torrini - Biography

Following on from her critically acclaimed sets ‘Love In The Time Of Science’ and her first for Rough Trade ‘Fisherman’s Woman’,  ‘Me And Armini’ (released 8th September 2008) saw her working once again with her long time producer / collaborator Dan Carey.

‘Me And Armini’ is a hugely ambitious and aspirational pop record with Emil­ana’s soaring voice centre stage, bolstered by a rich gamut of musical styles. From the summery skank of the title track to the surging, breathless ‘Jungle Drum’ (released 29th September), the spine-tingling ‘Big Jumps’ and the cave singing of ‘Gun’ this is a truly fantastic album.

Title track ‘Me And Armini’  is a song about “stalkery love” over a hypnotic track reminiscent of classic Dawn Penn, Emil­ana recounts the story of a burly Icelandic policeman depositing an obsesso-fan back to the airport (having traveled from Italy to come and live with her in her family’s home). There is a certain cheer and joie de vive that comes with the recounting of this dark story. “Life is never better than when it’s raw, explains Emiliana. Here lies the very essence of her artistry; music in thrall to the true wonder of being alive.

Emilana cheerfully describes being sat with a friend in a cemetery in Nice, staring at the gravestones and huge epitaphs; “these beautiful angels and tombstones, how silly - that’s all life comes to. People really want to believe there is something more, it makes them lazy about the moment. “Big Jumps” is about taking those chances - chiming guitar and delicate synth swooshes, combine with Emilana’s yearning voice to unforgettable effect.

The pedigree paring of Emiliana’s song writing and Carey’s sonic alchemy previously combined to world-beating effect when they co-wrote / produced ‘Slow’ for Kylie, and individually when Emiliana sang “Gollum Song” on the Lord Of The Rings soundtrack and Dan’s production work on the new Franz Ferdinand and recent Hot Chip records.

Emiliana beams with joy talking about working with Carey; “Dan will play something and I will see a panoramic view of what I want to sing about. We’re always laughing, coming up with mad ideas, I’ll say lets do a Chinese acid version of “Hey Joe!” and he instantly will play something that sounds exactly like that. Thank God we are working together he said otherwise no one would understand you! People search for their musical partner all their life and I’ve found mine”.

Carey explains; “we wanted it to sound like what would happen if you left a couple of kids in a studio with all the guitars, microphones and instruments in the studio plugged in and ready to record. We tried not to demo the songs at all, just doing things in one take to try and preserve the immediacy, and just generally have fun!”

This easy rapport meant the record was written in just 2 and a half weeks, with long brakes in between, a change in the song writing process for Emili­ana “It’s taken me a while to realize that songs just want to be born, it has very little to do with you. It’s like a room full of balloons and you’re pulling one down by it’s string.”

Songwriting took place in Oxford and Emiliana’s native Iceland (she holds the record for the most weeks at the number one album spot); Iceland is a big influence for me “the landscape, the people, my family. My Aunt and I decided to go for a little drive. 6 hours later we were on top of Snaefells glacier in the middle of the bright night, we were walking through these caves that people used to live in called the singing caves - you could really feel the weird energy in some of the places. We spent most of the night spotting animal shapes in the ice and frightening ourselves in the silence above the clouds.

“Me And Armini” is Emiliana Torrini’s most captivating, ambitious album to date, we hope you’ll agree.

www.emilianatorrini.com

www.myspace.com/emilianatorrini

Emilíana Torrini will perform live at The Big Chill 2009.
A-Z line-up | Buy tickets

Tags: Emilíana Torrini
Posted in Artists 2009, Festival | 6,436 views |

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