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KEREN ANN – NEW SELF-TITLED ALBUM WILL BE RELEASED ON MAY 22, 2007
TOUR DATES IN CANADA ARE CONFIRMED FOR JUNE 2007
Critically-acclaimed French singer-songwriter Keren Ann returns with her fifth album for release in Canada this May 22, 2007. Often favourably compared to Françoise Hardy, Nico, the works of Gainsbourg, Mazzy Star, Rufus Wainright and Suzanne Vega, Keren Ann is a truly special and engaging artist, one whose work evolves and grows, often with every listen. Sung purely in English, the arrangements and production on Keren Ann are ripe with subtle surprises, imbued with an organic character that belies the attention with which she refined the album.
Keren Ann is the self-titled follow up to 2004’s ‘Nolita’. Nolita (a mixture of French and English language compositions) was greeted with rave reviews around the globe. The Toronto Star in its CD Pick of the Week declared it “an alluring sonic refuge.” EYE Magazine glowed about it in full form “a complete album in an age of quick-hit-singles, Nolita is intimate mood music that compels you to listen closely.”
The Independent in Britain called Nolita; “Luminous, swoony, melancholic and moving”, Mojo hailed it as; “captivating.” Uncut & Q chimed in with similarly steep praise. The Times UK simply footnoted the reviews with 5 stars and declared Keren Ann a “sultry torch singer to trump all competition.”
Highlights of her latest, include ‘Lay Your Head Down’, which is propelled by handclaps, harmonica, and a mix of strings, all rolling beneath a circling guitar riff and blissful vocal, while the mix of flute, spaghetti Western guitar, and piano on ‘Where No Endings End’ comes across as almost medieval in its austerity. Delicate choral vocals waft through the trumpet and piano of ‘Liberty’, while ‘It Ain't No Crime’ lumbers forward in heavy boots, all dirty guitars and distorted drums. Other tracks such as ‘Harder Ships of the World’ and ‘It's All A Lie’ reveal yet further steps in her ever-evolving artistry.
"It is sometimes really hard to make a song sound good with just guitar and vocal," says Keren Ann who currently splits her time between Paris and New York. "I still wanted to have some of that on this record, but I also wanted my Disneyland, with an Icelandic choir, and strings, and all the fun percussion parts. I wanted to take every element of sound, and then toss and twist it around. It really is like painting in sound."
The album was produced by Keren Ann, mixed by Joe Barresi (Tool, Queens of the Stone Age, Alanis Morissette), and mastered by Bob Ludwig.
CANADIAN TOUR DATES – JUNE 2007
June 5 Le National Montreal, PQ
June 6 The Rivoli Toronto, ON
June 13 The Media Club Vancouver, BC
www.kerenann.com
www.myspace.com/kerenann
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