Lonely Drifter Karen
Encyclopedia
Lonely Drifter Karen was born from the union of three people with different musical backgrounds, from folk
and dream pop
to cabaret
, experimental
, classical
, rock
and more. The band consists of Austrian singer Tanja Frinta, pianist and producer Marc Melià Sobrevias from Spain and Italian Giorgio Fausto Menossi on drums and percussions.
in May 2008 in Europe
, June 2008 in the US and September 2008 in Canada
. The Canadian release of the album is in collaboration with Montreal
based Semprini Records who has also released Lonely Drifter Karen's 7" The Owl Moans Low in July 2008.
The Grass Is Singing album was enthusiastically welcomed by the press in several European countries (see quotes below).
The band is currently living in Brussels and Barcelona, where they recorded their second full length album Fall Of Spring which is due for release in the spring of 2010.
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and dream pop
Dream pop
Dream pop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s, when bands like The Passions, Dif Juz, Lowlife and A.R. Kane began fusing post-punk and ethereal experiments with bittersweet pop melodies into dreamy, sensual soundscapes. The term was almost...
to cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
, experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
, classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and more. The band consists of Austrian singer Tanja Frinta, pianist and producer Marc Melià Sobrevias from Spain and Italian Giorgio Fausto Menossi on drums and percussions.
Biography
Started as a solo project by Viennese-born Tanja Frinta (after her former music group "Holly May" had disbanded) while she was living in Sweden, Lonely Drifter Karen became a band when Frinta moved to Barcelona and met Italian drummer Giorgio Menossi and Majorcan keyboard player and arranger Marc Meliá Sobrevias. From December 2006 until January 2008 Frinta and Melià had been recording the debut album Grass is Singing, which was released by Crammed DiscsCrammed Discs
Crammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released over 300 albums and 250 singles, working with artists from all over the world...
in May 2008 in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, June 2008 in the US and September 2008 in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The Canadian release of the album is in collaboration with Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
based Semprini Records who has also released Lonely Drifter Karen's 7" The Owl Moans Low in July 2008.
The Grass Is Singing album was enthusiastically welcomed by the press in several European countries (see quotes below).
The band is currently living in Brussels and Barcelona, where they recorded their second full length album Fall Of Spring which is due for release in the spring of 2010.
Albums
- Fall of Spring (CD or Vinyl) Crammed DiscsCrammed DiscsCrammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released over 300 albums and 250 singles, working with artists from all over the world...
, 2010
- Dis-In-Motion
- Show Your Colours
- Russian Bells
- Railroad
- Ready to Fall
- Something's Scorching
- A Roof Somewhere
- Julien
- Eventually
- Side by Side
- Wonderous Ways
- Seeds (feat. Emily Jane WhiteEmily Jane WhiteEmily Jane White is a dark folk singer/songwriter from California who released her debut album in 2007. Influenced by American blues, folk, and the mythologies of different cultures along with contemporary female singer/songwriters such as Kate Bush, she has been compared to Chan Marshall of Cat...
) - Seasonal Things (Download Bonus Track)
- Grass Is Singing (CD) Crammed DiscsCrammed DiscsCrammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released over 300 albums and 250 singles, working with artists from all over the world...
, 2008
- This World is Crazy
- The Angels Sigh
- Passengers of the Night
- The Owl Moans Low
- Climb
- Casablanca
- Professor Dragon
- Salvation
- Carousel Horses
- True Desire
- Giselle
- No True Woman
- La Hierba Canta
EP
- La chouette (Digital EP) Crammed DiscsCrammed DiscsCrammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released over 300 albums and 250 singles, working with artists from all over the world...
, 2009
- La Chouette (The Owl Moans Low)
- La Hierba Canta (Album Version)
- The Owl Moans Low (EP) 7" Semprini Records, Crammed DiscsCrammed DiscsCrammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released over 300 albums and 250 singles, working with artists from all over the world...
, 2008
- The Owl Moans Low
- Stray Melodies
- River
- Sinsweetime 10" (green artwork) or CD Single (yellow cardboard) Fettkakao, 2003
- The Pure Heart Sin
- Beautiful Shock
- Some Summer Days
- Sweet (Swing) Time
Videos
- The Owl Moans Low (directed by Christina Luschin)
- This World Is Crazy (directed by Miguel Eek)
Press quotes
- "Tinged with melancholy, it's essentially jubilant, simple and lovely music, achieved without ever overdoing the saccharine levels" (Q, UK).
- "A delicious concoction taking in Weimar Republic cabaret, Parisian café music, Mittel-European classical traditions, rustic Italian ballads, gypsy folk and more, all topped by the whimsical, occasionally child-like songwriting of frontwoman Tanja Frinta. Grass Is Singing doesn't have a duff track on it" (The Daily Telegraph, UK)
- "An album fans of BjörkBjörkBjörk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
, Joanna NewsomJoanna NewsomJoanna Newsom is an American harpist, pianist and singer-songwriter from Nevada City, California.- Early life :Newsom grew up in the small town of Nevada City, California...
and Jolie HollandJolie HollandJolie Holland is an American singer and performer who combines elements of folk, traditional, country, rock, jazz, and blues...
will love without reservation… They behave like infants locked in a candy store with a dressing-up box, appropriating French chanson, Weillian cabaret, Waitsian noir, tango, eastern European folk, twisted jazz and Broadway musicals, dashing between them with promiscuous glee as the lyrics yank the songs into places far darker than the jaunty rhythms and melodies suggest, where mad inventors, circus performers and hybrid creatures lurk. The Feist-like The Owl Moans Low and the breakneck, Sondheimesque Climb are two stunners on an album full of standouts." (Sunday Times, UK) - "The arrangement swing elegantly between lush waltzes, stately woodwind, Weimar mischief and Hawaiian ukulele… captivating." (The Observer, UK)
- "Lonely Drifter Karen is this band's magical vehicle for a very strange kind of European musical theatre. Here the sounds of German cabaret, gypsy music and Paris cafe swing all tangle with the bright indie pop that Frinta used to make in a girl group, creating a sound-world that's both antique and modern… glued together with Frinta's 1920s jazz-club rasp… plenty of fun to be had at this circus" (Word, UK)
- "Gorgeously captivating…full of quirky melodies and surrealistic folksy storytelling lyrics loaded with evocative fairytale imagery…A tasty aural confection that's as light as the Alpine air and as deliciously rich as a Viennese Sachertorte, which brings to mind the likes of Dory PrevinDory PrevinDory Previn, née Dorothy Veronica Langan , is an American lyricist, singer-songwriter and poet.During the late 1950s and 1960s she was a lyricist for motion picture songs, and with her first husband André Previn received several Academy Award nominations...
, The Tiger Lillies, and Felt Mountain-era GoldfrappGoldfrappGoldfrapp are an English electronic music duo, formed in 1999 in London, England, that consists of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory ....
" (Nude, UK) - "Clearly Karen drifts from Vienna to Gothenburg to Barcelona, gypsying through cabaret and twinkly avant-pop. Lonely Drifter Karen draw you in to their magical world primarily and satisfyingly with good music… like Joanna NewsomJoanna NewsomJoanna Newsom is an American harpist, pianist and singer-songwriter from Nevada City, California.- Early life :Newsom grew up in the small town of Nevada City, California...
or Hanne HukkelbergHanne HukkelbergHanne Hukkelberg is a singer-songwriter from Kongsberg, Norway.Hukkelberg started singing and playing instruments at the age of 3...
there is an undeniable and earnest sweetness… This is the most enjoyable aspect of this album, it drifts into itself and then out again. It drifts into familiar territory and then away. And eventually it drifts into your dreams and hangs about there, being nice and reminding you of things you thought you had forgotten." (BBC Online, UK) - "Un disque merveilleusement arrangé, une fantasia instrumentale regardée à travers le trou de la serrure… Tanja et ses musiciens font valser le tango et la pop dans des habits haute couture, en quête de formes originales. Un doux vertige de manège de fête foraine, tout en formers fluides et baroques… Tanja Frinta pourrait être la fille cachée de Tom WaitsTom WaitsThomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, celle qu'il a eue lors de ses pérégrinations imaginaires dans la vieille Europe" (Les Inrockuptibles, France)
External links
- The band's Myspace page
- The band's pages on the site of their label Crammed DiscsCrammed DiscsCrammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released over 300 albums and 250 singles, working with artists from all over the world...