Sunday, 29 March 2015
Friday, 19 December 2014
We are album of 2014 for Californian music journalist Thomas Cooney.
My choice for Album of the Year in 2014 was the hardest choice I've
had to make in 30 years. This was a meh year for music, and none of the
finalists (Leonard Cohen, Bryan Ferry, Ilya) were at their height with
their entries; no matter how good those albums are, none represented the
artist's career-best. So, without further ado...... My choice for 2014
Album of the Year goes to: "Blind as Hope," by Ilya. Here is an
excerpt of what I wrote about the British duo's album this spring:
“Call My Name,” returns us to the brooding minstrel terrain. The vocals here reach new heights (or depths in this case) for [Joanna] Swan; her voice achieves such astonishing reach that one senses she’d be pleased to no end if people at times mistake her voice for that of a man’s when she reaches as deep as she does in the first minute of this lush ballad. Once she untethers her voice, the listener feels afloat, riding as high as Swan invites. And then things get crazy. Stupid crazy. Unfair.
It seems every time a review is written for an Ilya project, one is proclaiming a song as their new unheralded masterpiece. Track 6, “The Memory,” is so possessed and terrifyingly sublime that Swan seems otherworldly herself. I once wrote that Swan’s “vocals are thoroughly enmeshed with the narrative of the song, her movements inhabit the song the way only the ghost of the architect can haunt a mansion.” When I wrote that over six months ago, I had no way of knowing that a song would come forth as a perfect illustration of exactly that. If you are a fan of ethereal power vocals, then “The Memory” is the drug that is waiting to meet you for the first—but never the last—time."
Here's where you can find Ilya, they are career musicians who have worked with the likes of Peter Gabriel and Tears for Fears:
Thomas Cooney
“Call My Name,” returns us to the brooding minstrel terrain. The vocals here reach new heights (or depths in this case) for [Joanna] Swan; her voice achieves such astonishing reach that one senses she’d be pleased to no end if people at times mistake her voice for that of a man’s when she reaches as deep as she does in the first minute of this lush ballad. Once she untethers her voice, the listener feels afloat, riding as high as Swan invites. And then things get crazy. Stupid crazy. Unfair.
It seems every time a review is written for an Ilya project, one is proclaiming a song as their new unheralded masterpiece. Track 6, “The Memory,” is so possessed and terrifyingly sublime that Swan seems otherworldly herself. I once wrote that Swan’s “vocals are thoroughly enmeshed with the narrative of the song, her movements inhabit the song the way only the ghost of the architect can haunt a mansion.” When I wrote that over six months ago, I had no way of knowing that a song would come forth as a perfect illustration of exactly that. If you are a fan of ethereal power vocals, then “The Memory” is the drug that is waiting to meet you for the first—but never the last—time."
Here's where you can find Ilya, they are career musicians who have worked with the likes of Peter Gabriel and Tears for Fears:
Thomas Cooney
Friday, 14 November 2014
A new EP - from oven to table in 2 days!
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| Jim throwing a few moves to Nicks playing. |
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| Love the retro elements in the studio. |
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| This selfie makes it look like Jim has a massive poster of me in the control room :~) |
Tuesday, 14 October 2014
In Timeless Light
I made a selfie video all by my selfieness! Please watch and selflessly share. Thank you X
Saturday, 2 August 2014
I once made crazy noises into Peter Gabriel's Fairlight CMI
My mum got some old photo albums out of the loft the other day and a receipt for a session I did at Peter Gabriel's Studio fell out of one of them. In 1982 Peter Gabriel had heard me making a torrent of crazy noises at an Electric Guitars gig in Bath and asked if I would come and repeat them into his machine. I wasn't in the band - I was such a mad fan of theirs that I was yodelling like a banshee at the end of every song ... (and I was LOUD!) I don't know whether anything I did ever got used but it was such a fun day and Peter Gabriel such a lovely, lovely chap :~)
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| Me in 1982 |
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| Receipt for session .. so lo-fi! |
Friday, 1 August 2014
ILYA + 'PROJECT JAZZ' = The Jo Swan Duo & Quartet
ILYA + PROJECT JAZZ = The Jo Swan Quartet
Recipe - some good popular songs written between the 1930's and the present day.
Chuck 'em in a big old cast iron skillet and turn up the heat for maximun SMOOCH factor.
Pretend you are on warm white sands, gazing into the turquoise azure of the Caribbean sea, a potent fruity, cocktail clinking in your hand (note 'tail' on the end of that :~P) Now "Stir it up little darlin" and see what musical alchemy transpires!
That's kind of what we did in this scorching June but in Jim Barrs Studio in Easton, Bristol :~P
Here's a song and you can hear the rest on Ilyas new DONATION'S page on our website!
Recipe - some good popular songs written between the 1930's and the present day.
Chuck 'em in a big old cast iron skillet and turn up the heat for maximun SMOOCH factor.
Pretend you are on warm white sands, gazing into the turquoise azure of the Caribbean sea, a potent fruity, cocktail clinking in your hand (note 'tail' on the end of that :~P) Now "Stir it up little darlin" and see what musical alchemy transpires!
That's kind of what we did in this scorching June but in Jim Barrs Studio in Easton, Bristol :~P
Here's a song and you can hear the rest on Ilyas new DONATION'S page on our website!
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