Joni In The Moon — Sorrow Trees [2014]

 

       Joni In The Moon — Sorrow Trees

ο→   Self produced folktronic sonic reverie 'Joni in the Moon' is the collision of siblings Joni and Josh Hogan's songwriting and musical arrangement. Creating lush, layered electrofolk, the duo weaves together world–sample electronica, bazantar–bellied strings and melodic heart–on–sleeve folkpop lyric, exploring the interdependence of humans and nature, and the reverie in which the two intertwine...
Location: Perth, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
Album release:  7th February 2014
Record Label: Self–released
Duration:     23:30
Tracks:
01. Yellow Moon      (3:41)
02. Sorrow Tree I      (1:26)
03. L'il Star      (4:39)
04. Sorrow Tree II      (1:05)
05. Woman On Fire      (3:56)
06. Dove Song      (3:35)
07. Sorrow Tree III      (1:04)
08. This Love      (4:04)
ο→   Six–panel digipack compact disc with foil ink feature cover art by Sara Winfield, artwork and design by Gene Eaton and photography by Libby Edwards and Joni Hogan. Includes 12 page lyric booklet with credits and liner notes.
ο→   Formerly known as the frontwoman of early naughties outfit, Heathcliffe, Joni returns to the stage as Joni in the Moon. Revealing paths through the ethers of sorrow’s renewal, Sorrow Trees is paved by almost a decade of reclusive songwriting, and life as a young single mother living in the Perth Hills.
ο→   Brother Josh’s experience locally and abroad as a contemporary percussionist, composer and producer is clearly felt throughout, each song a personal expression of his own world flavours and creative chops in collaboration. Floating flutes, harps and harmonium dance with guttural bass–lines, bazantar–bellied strings, and an hypnotic and structured mish–mash of traditional and industrial/synthetic percussive pops.
ο→   “(Dove Song) is a beauty. Joni’s voice is full of power and its own personality while all around it spins this intriguing sorta–freak–folk track that seems to be forever swelling upwards. Now I know why this project has such big wraps from other musicians. “  — Dave Ruby Howe, Music Director, Triple J Unearthed
ο→   The duo are thrilled to be returning to the album’s birthplace, Fremantle, to launch at the Fly By Night Musician’s Club. Critically acclaimed outfits, Rokwell & Groom (Diger Rokwell and Felicity Groom), Hayley Beth & The Sonic Manipulator will be supporting on the night.
ο→   "Joni in the Moon have been tinkering away behind the scenes for just over 3 years to bring their debut album Sorrow Trees to fruition. Brainchild of siblings Joni and Josh Hogan, the project has been independently recorded and produced at home and in Josh’s studio in Fremantle, Western Australia, creating an outstanding first selfproduction: trip–hop beats hang with bazantar–bellied strings and squalls of world sample electronica; Harps and flutes weave in and out of harmonium clouds; Guitars and mandolin tip–toe through fields of rhodes and plucky percussion; and then there is Joni’s voice, a folkpop centrepiece, climbing and falling with tender elasticity in each song."
In french:
ο→   Un premier album par ce duo australien (Joni & Hosh Hogan, frère et soeur). Un contenu très varié qui met en évidence de belles capacités. L'album est cependant un peu court.
ο→   Perth's self produced Folktronic reverie, 'Joni in the Moon', hails the return of 29 year–old singer/song–writer Joni Hogan after eight years of relative silence. In collaboration with sibling, 32 year-old Josh Hogan, 'Joni in the Moon' sees the width and reach of Joni’s voice placed at the centre of Josh's lush and ambitious percussive world sample electronica and orchestral arrangements.
ο→   After the dissolution of first band Heathcliffe in 2004, and the birth of her first child in 2005, Joni spent the following years writing music in recluse before heading to the hills of hometown Perth, Western Australia in 2009, a freshly single mum to her now two daughters. Nestling in solitude amongst granite bergs and undulating wilderness, the sonic skeletons of ‘Joni in the Moon’ began to materialize.
ο→   Due for release on the 7th February 2014, debut Album “Sorrow Trees” has been self produced and arranged at home and in a makeshift studio in Fremantle, WA, with acclaimed noisemaker Josh. Josh’s career obsession with world sounds/rhythms and his kinship with the work of artists such as Flying Lotus and Björk, has created in him an enormous archive of collected sound, experience and sonic instinct.
ο→   There is a theatrical magic in Josh’s arrangement of Joni’s songs — floating flutes, harps and harmonium dance with guttural bass-lines, bazantar–bellied strings, and an hypnotic and structured mish-mash of traditional and industrial/synthetic percussive pops. Indeed, ‘Joni in the Moon’ weaves the siblings together in a complex and strangely beautiful musical symbiosis and it's this musical collision that launches Joni’s songwriting debut so boldly.
ο→   Swells of melancholy interwoven with her token heart–on–sleeve folkpop lyric, 'Sorrow Trees' is a sleek narrative of emotional transmutations, and Joni's is a voice unafraid in revealing the interdependence of herself and nature, and the haunting reverie in which the two intertwine.
Website: http://joniinthemoon.com.au/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoniintheMoon
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoniintheMoon
Agent:
Lyrics:
Yellow Moon
Lyrics by Joni Hogan

Walked into AWOL just today
Should’ve seen it coming miles away
Would you believe it, I survived
Never felt more alive in my life

Oh yellow moon,
I am standing so far from you
But I feel your golden fingers
Touching my face through this cold winter gloom
Oh yellow moon,
What’s a wild and wily woman to do
When her head is churning but her body’s burning
With a love she’s keeping for you?

Oh this light in all this winter fog
Is so beautiful....

Oh yellow moon,
Why the hell am I so goddamn confused?
Oh my love is like a fog
Wasting away on you
Oh yellow moon
What’s a wild and a wily woman to do
When her head is churning and her body’s burning
With a love she’s keeping for you?

Sorrow Tree I
Lyrics by Joni Hogan

I was born on the edges of hope
Caught asunder by the devil know, you
And I rode with the dust cloud into your town
Big dark ribbons of your past are hanging ‘round

But you made this blood
And it burns through my veins
Burns through these remains....

Sorrow Tree II
Lyrics By Joni Hogan

Everybody’s got a different story
Painted with their own guts and their own glory
I try to beat those demons as they rise
Ash and smoke like ghosts curling free from the coal’s eye

But you made this blood
And it burns through my veins
Burns through these remains

Sorrow Tree III
Lyrics by Joni Hogan

You went and lit fires with my name
It’s going to feed our lives, feed us
Down where the sorrow trees,
They grow,
Into joyous old oaks
Into joyous old oaks

Down where the sorrow trees,
They grow,
Into joyous old oaks
_______________________________________________________________

Joni In The Moon — Sorrow Trees [2014]

---