Avant-pop artist Hazel Iris announces debut album ‘Nine Sisters’
Avant-pop artist Hazel Iris
Announces debut album ‘Nine Sisters’ due 26th October
+ London show @ St. Bartholomew-the-Great at Smithfield on 25th October
Listen to ‘A Prince’ here:
Eccentric storytelling singer-songwriter Hazel Iris is pleased to announce details for her highly anticipated debut album ‘Nine Sisters’ due this October and will be accompanied by an exclusive show on Thursday 25 October at one of London’s most historic landmarks, St. Bartholomew-the-Great at Smithfield.
Hazel details the album: “Landscapes always play an essential role in my music. Although each piece appears to stand alone, they are conceived as a group of sisters bonded together by distinct geographic features throughout California. In a small valley on the Central Coast there is a chain of extinct volcanoes which run into the Pacific Ocean. They are called the Nine Sisters.”
‘Nine Sisters’ is inspired by combining the craft of Art Songs with the wild beauty of California landscapes. Composed in London and recorded in Los Angeles, Hazel Iris collaborated with Grammy Award-winning engineer and producer Tom Biller and Emmy Award-winning arranger Ali Helnwein. Orchestral instruments such as the harp, vibraphone and cello are woven together with modern instruments to embody nine female entities (and a volcano). By melding together traditional rhythms, instrumentation and structure, ‘Nine Sisters’ fuses elements of Classical, Jazz, and Indie Folk music in order to create ten chamber pieces. A stellar ensemble cast appears on the album, including celebrated conductor Jessica Cottis (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra) on horn, classical & jazz harpist Tara Minton, jazz drummer Fred Harper, double-bassist Twm Dylan, composer/cellist Matt Constantine, classical accordionist Aine McLoughlin, violinist Aurora del Rio, and guitarist Myles Peters.
Hazel’s live show is closer to a festival of arts rather than an ordinary launch gig, as some of the most brilliant and innovative artists from various genres guest on the bill. Internationally acclaimed concert pianist Jayson Gillham (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony) and dramatic soprano Katrina Sheppeard (English National Opera, Sydney Opera House) join forces to perform Richard Strauss’s final and most haunting song cycle, Vier letzte Lieder.
Performing on the hammered dulcimer, violin and vocals, Kate Arnold fronts the ‘punk baroque’ project Fear of the Forest and has worked with Lisa Knapp, Doudou Cissoko, Rose McDowall and Daemonia Nymphe. She performs a unique unplugged set influenced by her interests in folk, medieval and Middle Eastern music.
The show will be accompanied by theatrical elements choreographed by Alicia Britt of Wondering Hands Puppet Theatre that promises to be a night to remember.
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