| Rabbit Rabbit |
| Rabbit Rabbit — Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 2: Swallow Me Whole |
Rabbit Rabbit — Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 2: Swallow Me Whole : WINNER in 8th TAIS AWARDS 2015, Overseas category. Congratulations!!!
Γ»• Seamlessly blending art song, folk song, experimental rock and heart–wrenching balladry, and rendered on a motley assortment of acoustic & electric instruments, these songs are from the 2nd year of Rabbit Rabbit Radio's song–a–month subscription series.
Carla born: 1971, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States
Instruments: Vocals, violin, electric violin, viola, Stroh violin (trumpet–violin), nyckelharpa (hurdy gurdy), autoharp, guitar, bass, charango, zither (Marxophone), synthesizer, piano, celesta, organ, pump organ, accordion, bass harmonica, melodica, trumpet, percussion, kalimba, percussion guitar, vibraphone (bowed), wine glasses.
Location: Boston, Dennis ~ Woods Hole, MA
Album release: July 8th, 2014
Record Label: self–released
Duration: 46:19
Tracks:
01 Drowning Alice 2:54
02 Cross the River 3:37
03 Tiny Invasion 4:06
04 Swallow Me Whole 3:18
05 My Town 4:05
06 Inside/Outside 4:00
07 Steal Away 3:23
08 Back Home 3:50
09 This is the House 6:14
10 Hello Cat Lady 3:51
11 Nothing to Say 2:30
12 Before the Sun 4:31
© 2014 Rabbit Rabbit Radio
© Copyright — Rabbit Rabbit (Carla Kihlstedt & Matthias Bossi) / Rabbit Rabbit Records (888174901084)
Album Notes
Musicians:
» Carla Kihlstedt
» Matthias Bossi
» Jon Evans
+ Guests: Myles Boisen — guitar & George Ban—Weiss — bass.
Γ»• Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Volume 2 — Swallow Me Whole is the sophomore album from Rabbit Rabbit — the critically–acclaimed, song–spinning husband and wife duo of Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi. The pair worked extensively with frequent collaborator, bassist, guitarist, engineer and producer Jon Evans (Tori Amos, Ben Folds, Bill Frisell, Sarah McLachlan) on Swallow Me Whole, as well as with New York–based producer Joel Hamilton (Pretty Lights, The Black Keys, Matis Yahu). Iconic bass player Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson) joins them on "Back Home."
Γ»• In early 2012, Kihlstedt and Bossi launched their audio/video subscription service, Rabbit Rabbit Radio. Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Volume 2 Swallow Me Whole is the product of a year’s writing, the songs revealed to their subscribers one by one on the 1st of every month in 2013, and now mastered and available to the general public for the first time. Their song “After the Storm” from Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Volume 1, just won the eclectic category of the 13th annual Independent Music Awards.
Γ»• For Volume 2, this forward–thinking musical duo has ditched the CD format, instead releasing the album as a limited edition silkscreened print by acclaimed artist Dan McCarthy, who has worked with Wilco, Andrew Byrd and many more. The print is signed by the artist and by Carla and Matthias, and there is a download code for access to the album’s tracks printed on the back.
Γ»• “Writing songs is the art of putting a frame around a story.” Kihlstedt notes. “We try to be faithful to what each story needs rather than being faithful to a particular style or genre.” Bossi adds: “We love classical music and all of its intricacy and detail. We revel in the simplicity of a backbeat with blocky chords. We nerd out to prog–rock. We swoon over melody–masters Bacharach and Bowie. We toss our influences together in the pot and serve them up with our own defiantly minimal sound palette.”
Γ»• Violinist, vocalist and composer Carla Kihlstedt is best known as a founding member of an array of avant–garde, rock, neo–classical and Americana groups including Tin Hat, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, 2 Foot Yard, Causing a Tiger, and Minamo. She debuted her newest group, New Jazz Standards Quintet, at Jazz at Lincoln Center in May, 2014. She’s written critically acclaimed pieces for the International Contemporary Ensemble, Bang on a Can All–Stars, Brooklyn Rider, and the ROVA Saxophone Quartet and has contributed to recordings of Tom Waits, Fred Frith, Madeline Peyroux and many more. She currently serves on the faculty of New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation Department. Her husband and band–mate Matthias Bossi has performed with her in Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and The Book of Knots, and in addition to his own work with his musical production company Ridiculon, has worked with Mike Watt, St. Vincent, Mike Patton, Pretty Lights and John Vanderslice.
Fortaken: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rabbitrabbitcarlakihlste
Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/carlakihlstedt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rabbitrabbitradio
MySpace: https://myspace.com/carlakihlstedt
Website: http://rabbitrabbitradio.com/
Carla Kihlstedt: http://www.carlakihlstedt.com/
Mathias Bossi: http://matthiasbossi.com/
REVIEW
By ALLAN KOZINN JULY 11, 2014 11:06 AM
Γ»• As album sales plummet in the age of file sharing and Spotify, musicians are finding increasingly idiosyncratic ways of getting their music out there and persuading listeners to pay for it. Here are two installments from the Annals of Peculiar Record Release Formats of the Early 21st Century:
Γ»• The inventive songwriter Beck, having just had a critical hit with “Morning Phase,” is about to release another album that is likely to give rise to future trivia riddles — for example, “Which album did Beck release in 2012, and then, for the first time, in 2014?” or, “Which album did Beck release twice, but never actually recorded?”
Γ»• The correct answer will be “Song Reader,” a collection of 20 tunes that Beck released in December 2012. But Beck used the word “album” in much the way a 19th–century composer would have: the production was a collection of sheet music for 20 new songs, plus art work, published by McSweeney’s, and just as most listeners in the early 1800s heard Beethoven symphonies for the first time by playing them on the piano, Beck expected listeners to pitch in. As his webpage for the production put it, it is an album that “only you can bring to life.” None of which was enough to keep Rolling Stone from listing it as one of the Top 50 albums of 2013.
Γ»• Now, for those who never learned an instrument or were too busy to work through the album in its printed form, Beck is releasing the collection in a form you can hear. What you won’t hear, for the most part, are Beck’s interpretations. He performs only one of the songs, “Heaven’s Ladder.” The other 19 were recorded by a starry cast of friends — Jeff Tweedy, Jack White, Loudon Wainwright III, Gabriel Kahane with the yMusic ensemble, Jarvis Cocker, David Johansen and Norah Jones, among them.
Rabbit Rabbit, the duo formed by the avant–garde violinist and singer Carla Kihlstedt and the percussionist and keyboardist Matthias Bossi (who are also married), has come up with a more involved distribution method.
Γ»• Two years ago they set up a website, Rabbit Rabbit Radio, to which fans could subscribe on a pay–what–you–can basis (generally between $2 and $5 a month, by PayPal). Mr. Bossi and Ms. Kihlstedt committed to writing and producing a new song every month, which subscribers could download, as well as extras — video clips, essays, lists of restaurants they discovered on tour, photos — that could be explored on the site.
Γ»• At the end of each year, they would collect the year’s tracks, tweak them if necessary, and release them as an album, which nonsubscribers could catch up with. The first, “Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 1,” was released on CD last year. But for “Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 2 — Swallow Me Whole,” the group is taking a new approach.
Γ»• “We’re ditching the CD format altogether,” Ms. Kihlstedt said in an email. “Never had much love for it anyway.” Instead the album will be released as a download on group’s webpage (and, eventually, iTunes), but fans who want something physical can get a deluxe edition in the form of a limited edition (240 copies) silkscreened print by the artist Dan McCarthy, for $40. The prints are signed by Mr. McCarthy, Ms. Kihlstedt and Ms. Bossi, and include a handwritten download code for the album.
Γ»• “The idea,” Ms. Kihlstedt said, “is that those who still love things with tactile beauty will be interested in the poster. Those who aren’t can simply by the digital album.” Fortaken: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/
Also:
Dan McCarthy: http://www.danmccarthy.org/news/00.news.html
TECHNICAL NOTES:
Poster/Print
Γ»• Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 2 — Swallow Me Whole main photo
Γ»• Rabbit Rabbit is releasing Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Volume 2 — Swallow Me Whole on Tues, July 8th, 2014. Here's what you need to know:
• It's not a CD. Who every really loved CDs anyway?! Come, let's put the CD out of its miserable dwindling existence once and for all! It's an 18"x18" poster on beautiful... a gorgeous limited edition art print designed and silkscreened by artist Dan McCarthy. It's so pretty.... just you wait!
• It's signed by Dan McCarthy and by us: Carla Kihlstedt & Matthias Bossi.
• It has a download code hand–written by one of us on the back with a link to where you can get the tracks.
• It's newly–mastered and four of them are newly–mixed.
• "Swallow Me Whole" (formerly "Remember Me") has a new bass part by Jon Evans that we love so much.. Carla almost cried from joy when she heard it.
____________________________________________________________
BIO CARLA KIHLSTEDT 1:
Γ»• Carla Kihlstedt's music lives in the fertile places where genres overlap and aesthetic values transmute. She plays the violin, sings, improvises and composes, sometimes at the service of a simple song, and other times, a large–scale multi–faceted performance.
Γ»• Carla has always been drawn to collaborations for the way that they keep her language evolving in new ways. Her ongoing collaborative projects cover a wide spectrum of sounds from the rich and subtle acoustic composers' collective Tin Hat, to the dramatic and alarming experimental rock band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and from the intimate, incisive purveyors of song, 2 Foot Yard, to the fiercely spontaneous improvisational duo with pianist Satoko Fujii called Minamo. On the larger scale of a theater stage, with poet Rafael Oses, she has written a song cycle for seven performers called Necessary Monsters, based on Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings, and is currently developing a new piece with her husband Matthias Bossi that looks at family histories as interpreted by memory and myth. Most recently, she has written a piece for the ROVA Saxophone Quartet (thanks to a generous grant from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation) called Pandæmonium, based on observations from 1660–1880 of the coming of machine age. Four of the nine movements are graphic scores sewn by hand.
BIO CARLA 2:
Γ»• Music is a perfect vehicle for the alchemy of thoughts, instincts, emotions and ideas. It expands and contracts to reflect and create worlds that are intimate and expansive, crafted and spontaneous, ordered and cacophonous. My music lives in the fertile places where genres overlap and aesthetic values transmute. I play the violin, sing, improvise and compose, sometimes at the service of a simple song, and other times, a large–scale all–encompassing performance.
Γ»• I have always been drawn to collaborations for the way that they keep my language and thoughts evolving in new ways. My ongoing collaborative projects cover a wide spectrum of sounds from the rich and subtle acoustic composers' collective Tin Hat, to the dramatic and alarming experimental rock band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and from the intimate, incisive purveyors of song, 2 Foot Yard, to the fiercely spontaneous improvisational duo with pianist Satoko Fujii, Minamo.
Γ»• On the larger scale of a theater stage, with poet Rafael Oses, I’ve written a song cycle for seven musicians and narrator called Necessary Monsters, based on Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings, and am currently developing a new piece with my husband, musician and actor Matthias Bossi, that looks at family histories as interpreted by personal memories and myths.
Γ»• Though the cornerstone of my musical vocabulary comes from my classical training as a violinist (Peabody Institute, and the San Francisco and Oberlin Conservatories of Music) my world now comfortably reaches far beyond the concert hall. I’ve spent much of the last dozen years traveling in the U.S. and abroad with my many bands, playing in concert halls, rock clubs, and theaters, for rock, classical, and experimental audiences. As it turns out, the things that divide one audience from another exist only on the very surface. When you so much as blow on them, they all but disappear.
Γ»• I’ve been lucky enough to work with many of my favorite musicians, including Fred Frith, Tom Waits, Blixa Bargeld, Zeena Parkins, Shahzad Ismaily, Matthias Bossi, Nels Cline, Ben Goldberg, Carla Bozulich, Lisa Bielawa, Colin Jacobsen and the ROVA Saxophone Quartet. I’ve written scores for dance and theater companies including Flyaway Productions, inkBoat, the Joe Goode Performance Group, and Deborah Slater Dance Theater, and concert pieces for The ROVA Saxophone Quartet, The Bang on a Can All–Stars, and the Eclipse String Quartet.
DISCOGRAPHY:
SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM
»• GRAND OPENING AND CLOSING (RE–RELEASED, THE END RECORDS, 2006)
»• LIVE (SICKROOM RECORDS, 2003)
»• OF NATURAL HISTORY (WEB OF MIMICRY, 2004)
»• THE FACE (A DVD WITH SHINICHI IOVA KOGA) (SLEEPYTIME GORILLA PRESS, 2005)
»• IN GLORIOUS TIMES (THE END RECORDS, 2007)
TIN HAT TRIO
»• MEMORY IS AN ELEPHANT (ANGEL/EMI, 1999)
»• HELIUM (ANGEL/EMI, 2001)
»• THE RODEO ERODED (ROPEADOPE, 2002)
»• GREAT JEWISH MUSIC: SASHA ARGOV (TZADIK, 2003)
»• MASADA:VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS (TZADIK, 2003)
»• BOOK OF SILK (ROPEADOPE, 2004)
TIN HAT
»• THE SAD MACHINERY OF SPRING (HANNIBAL/RYKODISK, 2007)
»• LA GIUSTA DISTANZA (FILM SOUNDTRACK) (2007)
»• FOREIGN LEGION (BAG, 2010)
CARLA KIHLSTEDT
»• 2 FOOT YARD (TZADIK, 2003)
2 FOOT YARD
»• GREAT JEWISH MUSIC: JACOB DO BANDOLIM (TZADIK, 2004)
»• BORROWED ARMS (YARD WORK, 2008)
CAUSING A TIGER
»• CAUSING A TIGER (VICTO, 2009)
»• HOW WE HELD OUR POST (TWELVE CUPS, 2011)
BOOK OF KNOTS
»• BOOK OF KNOTS (ARCLIGHT RECORDS, 2005)
»• TRAINEATER (ANTI–, 2007)
»• GARDEN OF FAINTING STARS (IPECAC, 2011)
»• MINAMO (CARLA KIHLSTEDT & SATOKO FUJII)
»• MINAMO (HENCEFORTH RECORDS, 2007)
»• KUROI KAWA ~ BLACK RIVER (TZADIK, 2008)
CARLA KIHLSTEDT & SHAHZAD ISMAILY
»• FLYING LOW (HOLY NIGHT IN THE OUTHOUSE, 2004)
»• CARLA KIHLSTEDT, MATTHIAS BOSSI & DAN RATHBUN
»• RAVISH AND OTHER TALES FOR THE STAGE (MUSIC WRITTEN FOR THEATER & DANCE) (12 CUPS RECORDS, 2008)
CARLA KIHLSTEDT & MATTHIAS BOSSI
»• 2008 — Ravish (And Other Tales for the Stage) with Dan Rathbun (Twelve Cups)
»• 2011 — STILL YOU LAY DREAMING: TALES FOR THE STAGE, II (12 CUPS, 2011)
»• 2012 — Niagara Falling: Tales for the Stage, III (self–released)
RABBIT RABBIT
»• 2013 — Rabbit Rabbit Radio — Vol. 1 (self–released)
»• 2014 — Rabbit Rabbit Radio — Vol. 2: Swallow Me Whole (self–released)
MAYBE MONDAY
»• UNSQUARE: FRED FRITH, MIYA MASAOKA, ZEENA PARKINS, IKUE MORI, CARLA KIHLSTEDT, GERRY HEMINGWAY, LARRY OCHS (INTAKT, ZURICH, 2008)
FRED FRITH, CARLA KIHLSTEDT & STEVIE WISHART
»• THE COMPASS, LOG, AND LEAD (INTAKT, ZURICH, 2005)
LISA BIELAWA
»• A HANDFUL OF WORLD; KAFKA SONGS (TZADIK, 2007)
»• IN MEDIAS RES (BMOP, 2010)
JORGE LIDERMAN
»• MANY MOONS (ALBANY RECORDS, 2007)
FRED FRITH
»• THE HAPPY END PROBLEM (FRED RECORDS, 2006)
BEN GOLDBERG
»• 12 MINOR (AVANT, 1998)
»• THE DOOR, THE HAT, THE CHAIR, THE FACT (CRYPTOGRAMOPHONE, 2006)
WU FEI
»• A DISTANT YOUTH (FORREST HILL RECORDS, 2007)
PETER GARLAND
»• LOVE SONGS (TZADIK, 2005)
ROVA :: ORCHESTROVA
»• AN ALLIGATOR IN YOUR WALLET (EWE, 2004)
»• JOHN COLTRANE'S ASCENSION (BLACK SAINT, 2005)
»• REDRESSERS (FREE PORCUPINE SOCIETY, 2004)
Press:
Γ»• ““If confidence and creativity are the cornerstones of sexy, then violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt is the sexiest woman in the avant–garde — she conveys power with her world-class instrumental technique, compositional vision, and stage presence. On Borrowed Arms, the trio's second recording, every tune is magic: the melodies crystalline, the harmonies supple and complex, the rhythms offbeat and groove–deep.”” — SF Weekly
Γ»• ““Ms. Kihlstedt's classical training, folk music affinities, artful noise–sculpting and "found sounds" from her travels were thrown into a strange and savory creative stew…. Here was music and sound and poetic caulking… Dream logic holds it in check, as happens with much good art. Causing a Tiger is an evocative, bittersweet, funny and ultimately beguiling piece of music theater and/or musical poetry. Genre–wise and contextually, it fits nowhere neatly — and more's the power for that fact. Chalk up another one for a musician fruitfully working in the margins of the known musical world.”” — Santa Barbara News Press on album 'Causing a Tiger'
____________________________________________________________
BIO MATTHIAS:
Γ»• Matthias Bossi is born in 1979 at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He is raised on Cape Cod by school-teachers in a small village that is known for its outstanding seasonal Nativity display. At age 5 he is forced to play the violin, and while excelling at the instrument, his heart belongs to the drums. Bossi takes delivery of his first drum–set in the 3rd grade, and immediately forms Lover’s Luck, a band that specializes in shameless plagiaries of Aerosmith songs, playing only the hooks from such hits as Dude Looks Like A Lady.
Γ»• Fast forward to 2001. Matthias graduates from the New England Conservatory in Boston with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music, moves to New York, where he works in a book store just south of the World Trade Center, and tours with a band called Vic Thrill in which he masquerades as a cross–dressing Goth castrato.
Γ»• In 2002, Erik Sanko, bassist, singer and founder of the hard–hitting band Skeleton Key, offers Matthias two seats in the Skeleton Key organization — one on the drum throne and the other in the rusty plumbing van that they call home on the road. Γ»• He gladly accepts, and they tour the states in support of Skeleton Key’s triumphant 2002 release on Ipecac Records — Obtainium. They crash their van on Interstate 10 outside of Joshua Tree on Christmas Day. The van is totaled. They break one bass drum head, and crush one guitar, but are otherwise intact. The band repairs to Bob Hope Hospital in Palm Springs to convalesce.
Γ»• A strange band from Oakland, California called Sleepytime Gorilla Museum picks them up in the desert, and loads them on to their tour bus. They are incredibly muscular, and have a sexy female violinist and vocalist who dresses their wounds and nurses Skeleton Key back to health. Matthias immediately falls for this Florence Nightingale violinist. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum drives the members of Skeleton Key back to the East Coast, stopping, as is customary, to play rock shows along the way.
Back in New York, Matthias starts a band called The Book Of Knots with his friend Joel Hamilton, an engineer and guitarist from the same whaling village as he on Cape Cod. With three studio releases, the band makes discordant yet somehow beautiful music which attracts the vocal talents of such musical luminaries as Tom Waits, Mike Patton, Blixa Bargeld, Mike Watt, David Thomas, and Carla Bozulich. To this day, the members of The Book Of Knots marvel at the successes they have strung together, including staggering record sales of nearly one thousand (!) units, and the successful completion of an actual live show.
Γ»• In the spring of 2003, Matthias gets a call from the violinist of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Their drummer has left the band, and she wants him to come to California for an audition. He goes. He wins! This smells like trouble. Oakland, California, with it’s picturesque Victorian houses, palm trees, and taco trucks, becomes Matthias’ home. It is from Oakland that Sleepytime Gorilla Museum embarks on countless tours… some traversing the U.S.A. in their big green bus, and some overseas, playing in front of doe–eyed German fans who sweetly say ”Your music… It feel me like a milkshake.”
Γ»• Matthias unites with San Francisco singer-songwriter John Vanderslice, and helps him to propel two critically–acclaimed releases — Romanian Names, and Green Grow The Rushes. He works with engineer/producer Scott Solter on the transcendent album Actor by St Vincent, as well as releases by Fred Frith and Matthias’ own band, Causing A Tiger.
Γ»• It is also in Oakland that our hero discovers his penchant for the theatre, and nurtures his irrepressible flair for pretending to be someone else. Matthias asserts himself in the Bay Area theatre community, working with the Pickle Family Circus, Oakland Metro Opera, Shotgun Players, Nanos Operetta, Central Works,and Erika Shuch’s Performance Project.
Γ»• The violinist Carla Kihlstedt gives in to his constant romancing and agrees to marry Matthias. The newly–bonded duo embark on adventures of their own, including the collaborative penning of musical scores for dance/theatre pieces by choreographers Jo Kreiter, Joe Goode, Deborah Slater, and inkBoat. Matthias and Carla form a band called Cosa Brava with musical heroes Fred Frith and Zeena Parkins. Γ»• They agree to see the world from buses, vans, trains, and airplane windows in exchange for foreign currency.
Γ»• The Bossi–Kihlstedt duo birth a child named Tallulah. They leave California and return to their East Coast roots.
Γ»• Triumphantly ensconced on the East Coast, Matthias embarks on a number of thrilling projects, including studio appearances with A Storm Of Light, and Pretty Lights. He lends his Voiceover talent to The Brave Project, Steerforth Press’ E–Book release of Street Soldier, and Edmund McMillan’s The Binding Of Isaac, an absolutely mind–bending game for your Mac and PC.
Γ»• Recent escapades include much singing and playing with the inimitable singer–songwriter Sasha Dobson, a commercial narration for Little Baby’s Ice Cream of Philadelphia that blossomed into a YouTube riot, and the penning of a score for the upcoming video game “Mew–Genics.”
Γ»• Bossi continues to tour the world, although the magnetic forces of the small whaling village that he inhabits pull him home with greater frequency. Embracing the small–town life has allowed him and his wife Carla to mythologize their quiet existence in the form of a monthly music blog called Rabbit Rabbit Radio.
____________________________________________________________
| Rabbit Rabbit |
| Rabbit Rabbit — Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 2: Swallow Me Whole |
Γ»• Seamlessly blending art song, folk song, experimental rock and heart–wrenching balladry, and rendered on a motley assortment of acoustic & electric instruments, these songs are from the 2nd year of Rabbit Rabbit Radio's song–a–month subscription series.
Carla born: 1971, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States
Instruments: Vocals, violin, electric violin, viola, Stroh violin (trumpet–violin), nyckelharpa (hurdy gurdy), autoharp, guitar, bass, charango, zither (Marxophone), synthesizer, piano, celesta, organ, pump organ, accordion, bass harmonica, melodica, trumpet, percussion, kalimba, percussion guitar, vibraphone (bowed), wine glasses.
Location: Boston, Dennis ~ Woods Hole, MA
Album release: July 8th, 2014
Record Label: self–released
Duration: 46:19
Tracks:
01 Drowning Alice 2:54
02 Cross the River 3:37
03 Tiny Invasion 4:06
04 Swallow Me Whole 3:18
05 My Town 4:05
06 Inside/Outside 4:00
07 Steal Away 3:23
08 Back Home 3:50
09 This is the House 6:14
10 Hello Cat Lady 3:51
11 Nothing to Say 2:30
12 Before the Sun 4:31
© 2014 Rabbit Rabbit Radio
© Copyright — Rabbit Rabbit (Carla Kihlstedt & Matthias Bossi) / Rabbit Rabbit Records (888174901084)
Album Notes
Musicians:
» Carla Kihlstedt
» Matthias Bossi
» Jon Evans
+ Guests: Myles Boisen — guitar & George Ban—Weiss — bass.
Γ»• Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Volume 2 — Swallow Me Whole is the sophomore album from Rabbit Rabbit — the critically–acclaimed, song–spinning husband and wife duo of Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi. The pair worked extensively with frequent collaborator, bassist, guitarist, engineer and producer Jon Evans (Tori Amos, Ben Folds, Bill Frisell, Sarah McLachlan) on Swallow Me Whole, as well as with New York–based producer Joel Hamilton (Pretty Lights, The Black Keys, Matis Yahu). Iconic bass player Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson) joins them on "Back Home."
Γ»• In early 2012, Kihlstedt and Bossi launched their audio/video subscription service, Rabbit Rabbit Radio. Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Volume 2 Swallow Me Whole is the product of a year’s writing, the songs revealed to their subscribers one by one on the 1st of every month in 2013, and now mastered and available to the general public for the first time. Their song “After the Storm” from Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Volume 1, just won the eclectic category of the 13th annual Independent Music Awards.
Γ»• For Volume 2, this forward–thinking musical duo has ditched the CD format, instead releasing the album as a limited edition silkscreened print by acclaimed artist Dan McCarthy, who has worked with Wilco, Andrew Byrd and many more. The print is signed by the artist and by Carla and Matthias, and there is a download code for access to the album’s tracks printed on the back.
Γ»• “Writing songs is the art of putting a frame around a story.” Kihlstedt notes. “We try to be faithful to what each story needs rather than being faithful to a particular style or genre.” Bossi adds: “We love classical music and all of its intricacy and detail. We revel in the simplicity of a backbeat with blocky chords. We nerd out to prog–rock. We swoon over melody–masters Bacharach and Bowie. We toss our influences together in the pot and serve them up with our own defiantly minimal sound palette.”
Γ»• Violinist, vocalist and composer Carla Kihlstedt is best known as a founding member of an array of avant–garde, rock, neo–classical and Americana groups including Tin Hat, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, 2 Foot Yard, Causing a Tiger, and Minamo. She debuted her newest group, New Jazz Standards Quintet, at Jazz at Lincoln Center in May, 2014. She’s written critically acclaimed pieces for the International Contemporary Ensemble, Bang on a Can All–Stars, Brooklyn Rider, and the ROVA Saxophone Quartet and has contributed to recordings of Tom Waits, Fred Frith, Madeline Peyroux and many more. She currently serves on the faculty of New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation Department. Her husband and band–mate Matthias Bossi has performed with her in Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and The Book of Knots, and in addition to his own work with his musical production company Ridiculon, has worked with Mike Watt, St. Vincent, Mike Patton, Pretty Lights and John Vanderslice.
Fortaken: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rabbitrabbitcarlakihlste
Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/carlakihlstedt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rabbitrabbitradio
MySpace: https://myspace.com/carlakihlstedt
Website: http://rabbitrabbitradio.com/
Carla Kihlstedt: http://www.carlakihlstedt.com/
Mathias Bossi: http://matthiasbossi.com/
REVIEW
By ALLAN KOZINN JULY 11, 2014 11:06 AM
Γ»• As album sales plummet in the age of file sharing and Spotify, musicians are finding increasingly idiosyncratic ways of getting their music out there and persuading listeners to pay for it. Here are two installments from the Annals of Peculiar Record Release Formats of the Early 21st Century:
Γ»• The inventive songwriter Beck, having just had a critical hit with “Morning Phase,” is about to release another album that is likely to give rise to future trivia riddles — for example, “Which album did Beck release in 2012, and then, for the first time, in 2014?” or, “Which album did Beck release twice, but never actually recorded?”
Γ»• The correct answer will be “Song Reader,” a collection of 20 tunes that Beck released in December 2012. But Beck used the word “album” in much the way a 19th–century composer would have: the production was a collection of sheet music for 20 new songs, plus art work, published by McSweeney’s, and just as most listeners in the early 1800s heard Beethoven symphonies for the first time by playing them on the piano, Beck expected listeners to pitch in. As his webpage for the production put it, it is an album that “only you can bring to life.” None of which was enough to keep Rolling Stone from listing it as one of the Top 50 albums of 2013.
Γ»• Now, for those who never learned an instrument or were too busy to work through the album in its printed form, Beck is releasing the collection in a form you can hear. What you won’t hear, for the most part, are Beck’s interpretations. He performs only one of the songs, “Heaven’s Ladder.” The other 19 were recorded by a starry cast of friends — Jeff Tweedy, Jack White, Loudon Wainwright III, Gabriel Kahane with the yMusic ensemble, Jarvis Cocker, David Johansen and Norah Jones, among them.
Rabbit Rabbit, the duo formed by the avant–garde violinist and singer Carla Kihlstedt and the percussionist and keyboardist Matthias Bossi (who are also married), has come up with a more involved distribution method.
Γ»• Two years ago they set up a website, Rabbit Rabbit Radio, to which fans could subscribe on a pay–what–you–can basis (generally between $2 and $5 a month, by PayPal). Mr. Bossi and Ms. Kihlstedt committed to writing and producing a new song every month, which subscribers could download, as well as extras — video clips, essays, lists of restaurants they discovered on tour, photos — that could be explored on the site.
Γ»• At the end of each year, they would collect the year’s tracks, tweak them if necessary, and release them as an album, which nonsubscribers could catch up with. The first, “Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 1,” was released on CD last year. But for “Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 2 — Swallow Me Whole,” the group is taking a new approach.
Γ»• “We’re ditching the CD format altogether,” Ms. Kihlstedt said in an email. “Never had much love for it anyway.” Instead the album will be released as a download on group’s webpage (and, eventually, iTunes), but fans who want something physical can get a deluxe edition in the form of a limited edition (240 copies) silkscreened print by the artist Dan McCarthy, for $40. The prints are signed by Mr. McCarthy, Ms. Kihlstedt and Ms. Bossi, and include a handwritten download code for the album.
Γ»• “The idea,” Ms. Kihlstedt said, “is that those who still love things with tactile beauty will be interested in the poster. Those who aren’t can simply by the digital album.” Fortaken: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/
Also:
Dan McCarthy: http://www.danmccarthy.org/news/00.news.html
TECHNICAL NOTES:
Poster/Print
Γ»• Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Vol. 2 — Swallow Me Whole main photo
Γ»• Rabbit Rabbit is releasing Rabbit Rabbit Radio, Volume 2 — Swallow Me Whole on Tues, July 8th, 2014. Here's what you need to know:
• It's not a CD. Who every really loved CDs anyway?! Come, let's put the CD out of its miserable dwindling existence once and for all! It's an 18"x18" poster on beautiful... a gorgeous limited edition art print designed and silkscreened by artist Dan McCarthy. It's so pretty.... just you wait!
• It's signed by Dan McCarthy and by us: Carla Kihlstedt & Matthias Bossi.
• It has a download code hand–written by one of us on the back with a link to where you can get the tracks.
• It's newly–mastered and four of them are newly–mixed.
• "Swallow Me Whole" (formerly "Remember Me") has a new bass part by Jon Evans that we love so much.. Carla almost cried from joy when she heard it.
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BIO CARLA KIHLSTEDT 1:
Γ»• Carla Kihlstedt's music lives in the fertile places where genres overlap and aesthetic values transmute. She plays the violin, sings, improvises and composes, sometimes at the service of a simple song, and other times, a large–scale multi–faceted performance.
Γ»• Carla has always been drawn to collaborations for the way that they keep her language evolving in new ways. Her ongoing collaborative projects cover a wide spectrum of sounds from the rich and subtle acoustic composers' collective Tin Hat, to the dramatic and alarming experimental rock band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and from the intimate, incisive purveyors of song, 2 Foot Yard, to the fiercely spontaneous improvisational duo with pianist Satoko Fujii called Minamo. On the larger scale of a theater stage, with poet Rafael Oses, she has written a song cycle for seven performers called Necessary Monsters, based on Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings, and is currently developing a new piece with her husband Matthias Bossi that looks at family histories as interpreted by memory and myth. Most recently, she has written a piece for the ROVA Saxophone Quartet (thanks to a generous grant from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation) called Pandæmonium, based on observations from 1660–1880 of the coming of machine age. Four of the nine movements are graphic scores sewn by hand.
BIO CARLA 2:
Γ»• Music is a perfect vehicle for the alchemy of thoughts, instincts, emotions and ideas. It expands and contracts to reflect and create worlds that are intimate and expansive, crafted and spontaneous, ordered and cacophonous. My music lives in the fertile places where genres overlap and aesthetic values transmute. I play the violin, sing, improvise and compose, sometimes at the service of a simple song, and other times, a large–scale all–encompassing performance.
Γ»• I have always been drawn to collaborations for the way that they keep my language and thoughts evolving in new ways. My ongoing collaborative projects cover a wide spectrum of sounds from the rich and subtle acoustic composers' collective Tin Hat, to the dramatic and alarming experimental rock band Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and from the intimate, incisive purveyors of song, 2 Foot Yard, to the fiercely spontaneous improvisational duo with pianist Satoko Fujii, Minamo.
Γ»• On the larger scale of a theater stage, with poet Rafael Oses, I’ve written a song cycle for seven musicians and narrator called Necessary Monsters, based on Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings, and am currently developing a new piece with my husband, musician and actor Matthias Bossi, that looks at family histories as interpreted by personal memories and myths.
Γ»• Though the cornerstone of my musical vocabulary comes from my classical training as a violinist (Peabody Institute, and the San Francisco and Oberlin Conservatories of Music) my world now comfortably reaches far beyond the concert hall. I’ve spent much of the last dozen years traveling in the U.S. and abroad with my many bands, playing in concert halls, rock clubs, and theaters, for rock, classical, and experimental audiences. As it turns out, the things that divide one audience from another exist only on the very surface. When you so much as blow on them, they all but disappear.
Γ»• I’ve been lucky enough to work with many of my favorite musicians, including Fred Frith, Tom Waits, Blixa Bargeld, Zeena Parkins, Shahzad Ismaily, Matthias Bossi, Nels Cline, Ben Goldberg, Carla Bozulich, Lisa Bielawa, Colin Jacobsen and the ROVA Saxophone Quartet. I’ve written scores for dance and theater companies including Flyaway Productions, inkBoat, the Joe Goode Performance Group, and Deborah Slater Dance Theater, and concert pieces for The ROVA Saxophone Quartet, The Bang on a Can All–Stars, and the Eclipse String Quartet.
DISCOGRAPHY:
SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM
»• GRAND OPENING AND CLOSING (RE–RELEASED, THE END RECORDS, 2006)
»• LIVE (SICKROOM RECORDS, 2003)
»• OF NATURAL HISTORY (WEB OF MIMICRY, 2004)
»• THE FACE (A DVD WITH SHINICHI IOVA KOGA) (SLEEPYTIME GORILLA PRESS, 2005)
»• IN GLORIOUS TIMES (THE END RECORDS, 2007)
TIN HAT TRIO
»• MEMORY IS AN ELEPHANT (ANGEL/EMI, 1999)
»• HELIUM (ANGEL/EMI, 2001)
»• THE RODEO ERODED (ROPEADOPE, 2002)
»• GREAT JEWISH MUSIC: SASHA ARGOV (TZADIK, 2003)
»• MASADA:VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS (TZADIK, 2003)
»• BOOK OF SILK (ROPEADOPE, 2004)
TIN HAT
»• THE SAD MACHINERY OF SPRING (HANNIBAL/RYKODISK, 2007)
»• LA GIUSTA DISTANZA (FILM SOUNDTRACK) (2007)
»• FOREIGN LEGION (BAG, 2010)
CARLA KIHLSTEDT
»• 2 FOOT YARD (TZADIK, 2003)
2 FOOT YARD
»• GREAT JEWISH MUSIC: JACOB DO BANDOLIM (TZADIK, 2004)
»• BORROWED ARMS (YARD WORK, 2008)
CAUSING A TIGER
»• CAUSING A TIGER (VICTO, 2009)
»• HOW WE HELD OUR POST (TWELVE CUPS, 2011)
BOOK OF KNOTS
»• BOOK OF KNOTS (ARCLIGHT RECORDS, 2005)
»• TRAINEATER (ANTI–, 2007)
»• GARDEN OF FAINTING STARS (IPECAC, 2011)
»• MINAMO (CARLA KIHLSTEDT & SATOKO FUJII)
»• MINAMO (HENCEFORTH RECORDS, 2007)
»• KUROI KAWA ~ BLACK RIVER (TZADIK, 2008)
CARLA KIHLSTEDT & SHAHZAD ISMAILY
»• FLYING LOW (HOLY NIGHT IN THE OUTHOUSE, 2004)
»• CARLA KIHLSTEDT, MATTHIAS BOSSI & DAN RATHBUN
»• RAVISH AND OTHER TALES FOR THE STAGE (MUSIC WRITTEN FOR THEATER & DANCE) (12 CUPS RECORDS, 2008)
CARLA KIHLSTEDT & MATTHIAS BOSSI
»• 2008 — Ravish (And Other Tales for the Stage) with Dan Rathbun (Twelve Cups)
»• 2011 — STILL YOU LAY DREAMING: TALES FOR THE STAGE, II (12 CUPS, 2011)
»• 2012 — Niagara Falling: Tales for the Stage, III (self–released)
RABBIT RABBIT
»• 2013 — Rabbit Rabbit Radio — Vol. 1 (self–released)
»• 2014 — Rabbit Rabbit Radio — Vol. 2: Swallow Me Whole (self–released)
MAYBE MONDAY
»• UNSQUARE: FRED FRITH, MIYA MASAOKA, ZEENA PARKINS, IKUE MORI, CARLA KIHLSTEDT, GERRY HEMINGWAY, LARRY OCHS (INTAKT, ZURICH, 2008)
FRED FRITH, CARLA KIHLSTEDT & STEVIE WISHART
»• THE COMPASS, LOG, AND LEAD (INTAKT, ZURICH, 2005)
LISA BIELAWA
»• A HANDFUL OF WORLD; KAFKA SONGS (TZADIK, 2007)
»• IN MEDIAS RES (BMOP, 2010)
JORGE LIDERMAN
»• MANY MOONS (ALBANY RECORDS, 2007)
FRED FRITH
»• THE HAPPY END PROBLEM (FRED RECORDS, 2006)
BEN GOLDBERG
»• 12 MINOR (AVANT, 1998)
»• THE DOOR, THE HAT, THE CHAIR, THE FACT (CRYPTOGRAMOPHONE, 2006)
WU FEI
»• A DISTANT YOUTH (FORREST HILL RECORDS, 2007)
PETER GARLAND
»• LOVE SONGS (TZADIK, 2005)
ROVA :: ORCHESTROVA
»• AN ALLIGATOR IN YOUR WALLET (EWE, 2004)
»• JOHN COLTRANE'S ASCENSION (BLACK SAINT, 2005)
»• REDRESSERS (FREE PORCUPINE SOCIETY, 2004)
Press:
Γ»• ““If confidence and creativity are the cornerstones of sexy, then violinist/vocalist Carla Kihlstedt is the sexiest woman in the avant–garde — she conveys power with her world-class instrumental technique, compositional vision, and stage presence. On Borrowed Arms, the trio's second recording, every tune is magic: the melodies crystalline, the harmonies supple and complex, the rhythms offbeat and groove–deep.”” — SF Weekly
Γ»• ““Ms. Kihlstedt's classical training, folk music affinities, artful noise–sculpting and "found sounds" from her travels were thrown into a strange and savory creative stew…. Here was music and sound and poetic caulking… Dream logic holds it in check, as happens with much good art. Causing a Tiger is an evocative, bittersweet, funny and ultimately beguiling piece of music theater and/or musical poetry. Genre–wise and contextually, it fits nowhere neatly — and more's the power for that fact. Chalk up another one for a musician fruitfully working in the margins of the known musical world.”” — Santa Barbara News Press on album 'Causing a Tiger'
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BIO MATTHIAS:
Γ»• Matthias Bossi is born in 1979 at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He is raised on Cape Cod by school-teachers in a small village that is known for its outstanding seasonal Nativity display. At age 5 he is forced to play the violin, and while excelling at the instrument, his heart belongs to the drums. Bossi takes delivery of his first drum–set in the 3rd grade, and immediately forms Lover’s Luck, a band that specializes in shameless plagiaries of Aerosmith songs, playing only the hooks from such hits as Dude Looks Like A Lady.
Γ»• Fast forward to 2001. Matthias graduates from the New England Conservatory in Boston with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music, moves to New York, where he works in a book store just south of the World Trade Center, and tours with a band called Vic Thrill in which he masquerades as a cross–dressing Goth castrato.
Γ»• In 2002, Erik Sanko, bassist, singer and founder of the hard–hitting band Skeleton Key, offers Matthias two seats in the Skeleton Key organization — one on the drum throne and the other in the rusty plumbing van that they call home on the road. Γ»• He gladly accepts, and they tour the states in support of Skeleton Key’s triumphant 2002 release on Ipecac Records — Obtainium. They crash their van on Interstate 10 outside of Joshua Tree on Christmas Day. The van is totaled. They break one bass drum head, and crush one guitar, but are otherwise intact. The band repairs to Bob Hope Hospital in Palm Springs to convalesce.
Γ»• A strange band from Oakland, California called Sleepytime Gorilla Museum picks them up in the desert, and loads them on to their tour bus. They are incredibly muscular, and have a sexy female violinist and vocalist who dresses their wounds and nurses Skeleton Key back to health. Matthias immediately falls for this Florence Nightingale violinist. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum drives the members of Skeleton Key back to the East Coast, stopping, as is customary, to play rock shows along the way.
Back in New York, Matthias starts a band called The Book Of Knots with his friend Joel Hamilton, an engineer and guitarist from the same whaling village as he on Cape Cod. With three studio releases, the band makes discordant yet somehow beautiful music which attracts the vocal talents of such musical luminaries as Tom Waits, Mike Patton, Blixa Bargeld, Mike Watt, David Thomas, and Carla Bozulich. To this day, the members of The Book Of Knots marvel at the successes they have strung together, including staggering record sales of nearly one thousand (!) units, and the successful completion of an actual live show.
Γ»• In the spring of 2003, Matthias gets a call from the violinist of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Their drummer has left the band, and she wants him to come to California for an audition. He goes. He wins! This smells like trouble. Oakland, California, with it’s picturesque Victorian houses, palm trees, and taco trucks, becomes Matthias’ home. It is from Oakland that Sleepytime Gorilla Museum embarks on countless tours… some traversing the U.S.A. in their big green bus, and some overseas, playing in front of doe–eyed German fans who sweetly say ”Your music… It feel me like a milkshake.”
Γ»• Matthias unites with San Francisco singer-songwriter John Vanderslice, and helps him to propel two critically–acclaimed releases — Romanian Names, and Green Grow The Rushes. He works with engineer/producer Scott Solter on the transcendent album Actor by St Vincent, as well as releases by Fred Frith and Matthias’ own band, Causing A Tiger.
Γ»• It is also in Oakland that our hero discovers his penchant for the theatre, and nurtures his irrepressible flair for pretending to be someone else. Matthias asserts himself in the Bay Area theatre community, working with the Pickle Family Circus, Oakland Metro Opera, Shotgun Players, Nanos Operetta, Central Works,and Erika Shuch’s Performance Project.
Γ»• The violinist Carla Kihlstedt gives in to his constant romancing and agrees to marry Matthias. The newly–bonded duo embark on adventures of their own, including the collaborative penning of musical scores for dance/theatre pieces by choreographers Jo Kreiter, Joe Goode, Deborah Slater, and inkBoat. Matthias and Carla form a band called Cosa Brava with musical heroes Fred Frith and Zeena Parkins. Γ»• They agree to see the world from buses, vans, trains, and airplane windows in exchange for foreign currency.
Γ»• The Bossi–Kihlstedt duo birth a child named Tallulah. They leave California and return to their East Coast roots.
Γ»• Triumphantly ensconced on the East Coast, Matthias embarks on a number of thrilling projects, including studio appearances with A Storm Of Light, and Pretty Lights. He lends his Voiceover talent to The Brave Project, Steerforth Press’ E–Book release of Street Soldier, and Edmund McMillan’s The Binding Of Isaac, an absolutely mind–bending game for your Mac and PC.
Γ»• Recent escapades include much singing and playing with the inimitable singer–songwriter Sasha Dobson, a commercial narration for Little Baby’s Ice Cream of Philadelphia that blossomed into a YouTube riot, and the penning of a score for the upcoming video game “Mew–Genics.”
Γ»• Bossi continues to tour the world, although the magnetic forces of the small whaling village that he inhabits pull him home with greater frequency. Embracing the small–town life has allowed him and his wife Carla to mythologize their quiet existence in the form of a monthly music blog called Rabbit Rabbit Radio.
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