Thus Owls in Echoes Podcast

The Canadian-Swedish Band Thus Owls Talk about Turning Rocks on Echoes Podcast.

 

Thus Owls Parker Shper, Simon Angell, Erika Angell live on Echoes

Thus Owls’ Erika Angell is a singer who isn’t afraid to cut loose.  Like Kate Bush and Tori Amos, she takes unexpected vocal flights, but unlike them, her voice is throatier, earthier giving her vocal turns a depth of knowing.  She can exude the declamatory sound of Siouxsie Sioux and the poignant refrains of Joni Mitchell. It’s the perfect voice for a band that brings a theatrical feel to Turning Rocks, their song-cycle of life on a Swedish island that is sometimes pastoral but often dark and haunted.  With husband Simon Angell on guitar, Thus Owls conjures dramatic musical structures that range from gentle autoharp refrains to screaming 60’s style rave-ups replete with Farfisa organ and Wurlitzer electric piano.    They played live on Echoes a few weeks ago.  Now hear the story of this band whose influences range from Japanese surf guitar to Alice Coltrane organ; from Abba to Meredith Monk.  You can hear them talk about it in the Echoes Podcast.

Hear Thus Owls Powerful Live Performance at Echoes On Line

You can stream it on-demand from Echoes On-line, our streaming subscription service.  You can sign up for a 1 week trial of unlimited streaming for $2.99 here.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club. and get Hans Christian’s Hidden Treasures, the May CD of the Month. You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time. You can do it all right here.

OR
Pick Up  TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

 

 

Thus Owls Interview on Echoes

The Canadian-Swedish Band Thus Owls Talk about Turning Rocks tonight on Echoes.

Thus Owl’s Erika Angel on Echoes

Thus Owls’ Erika Angell is a singer who isn’t afraid to cut loose.  Like Kate Bush and Tori Amos, she takes unexpected vocal flights, but unlike them, her voice is throatier, earthier giving her vocal turns a depth of knowing.  She can exude the declamatory sound of Siouxsie Sioux and the poignant refrains of Joni Mitchell. It’s the perfect voice for a band that brings a theatrical feel to Turning Rocks, their song-cycle of life on a Swedish island that is sometimes pastoral but often dark and haunted.  With husband Simon Angell on guitar, Thus Owls conjures dramatic musical structures that range from gentle autoharp refrains to screaming 60’s style rave-ups replete with Farfisa organ and Wurlitzer electric piano.    They played live on Echoes a few weeks ago.  Now hear the story of this band whose influences range from Japanese surf guitar to Alice Coltrane organ; from Abba to Meredith Monk.

WHERE & HOW TO LISTEN TO ECHOES

Echoes is on different stations, on different days and different times.
You can listen locally or stream-live from our many stations’ websites.
You can also stream it on-demand from Echoes On-line, our streaming subscription service.  You can sign up for a 1 week trial of unlimited streaming for $2.99 here.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club. and get Hans Christian’s Hidden Treasures, the May CD of the Month. You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time. You can do it all right here.

OR
Pick Up  TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

 

 

Thus Owls Live on Echoes

THUS OWLS THEATER IN YOUR HEAD LIVE ON ECHOES

Thus Owls’ Erika Angell live on Echoes

I have been enchanted by Thus Owls.  This Canadian-Swedish band brings a theatrical feel to their songs of life on a Swedish island that is sometimes pastoral but often dark and haunted.  The band is fronted by singer Erika Angell who has a dramatic style that recalls Kate Bush, Tori Amos and a touch of Siouxsie Sioux’s arch darkness.  With husband Simon Angell on guitar, Thus Owls conjures dramatic musical structures that range from gentle autoharp refrains to screaming 60’s style rave-ups replete with Farfisa organ.  Their latest album is Turning Rocks.  You don’t want to disturb the neighbors with this one.  Wear headphones and turn it up when Thus Owls play live on Echoes.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Join the Echoes CD of the Month Club. and get  Lyla Foy’s Mirrors the Sky, the April CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR
Pick Up  TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

Join us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

An Echo Location: Alu’s Cosmic Cabaret

The latest singer to carry the torch of Kate Bush into new terrain is named Alu

[You can also hear an Audio Version of this Blog, with Alu’s music]

Ziggy Stardust came from Mars, Sun Ra came from Saturn.  Alu isn’t from another planet, but sometimes she wants to be.

Alu: Ah, no, not really happy with earth, I sometimes not happy with the humans here, I think I’ve always felt like a bit of an outcast and you know, just, I think we all kind of want to go to that place where our family is, or the people who understand and support us are, and that’s kind of Mars to me.

You can hear Alu’s trip to Mars on a song called “Martian Rendezvous.” It’s one of the quirky, atmospheric and theatrical songs from her sophomore album, Lobotomy Sessions. 

That seems like it might be an ironic punk title or the follow-up to Spinal Tap’s Intravenous De Milo.  But although her song “Recluse” appears in the new Clive Barker film, The Midnight Meat Train, Alu isn’t a morose Goth or raving headbanger. For the Los Angeles-raised singer, Lobotomy Sessions is more like therapy.

Alu: It is very healing for me and every, every song is very healing for me. They help me a lot.

Lobotomy Sessions doesn’t remove part of Alu’s head, but it does let us see the world inside it on songs like “Buzzin’ in My Brain.” It’s a spiritual and musical descendent of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross’s “Twisted,” via Joni Mitchell.

Alu: Buzzin’ in My Brain is kind of about my relationship with music and creation and insanity, you know, because it’s the process is kind of maddening, so it’s not directly about therapy, but it is in a way because it’s, it’s about my form of therapy which is creating.

She’s a child of Hollywood animation artists and went to school at Cal Arts where she got the voice lessons that help set her apart. She’s been compared to Bjork and Tori Amos, cabaret and The Addams Family. But rarely have those elements come together with the haunting, and haunted charm you hear on the three ring pyschosis of her song, “Circus Cosmos.”

Alu is the latest in a string of idiosyncratic, introspective and provocative singers following in the tradition of Kate Bush. It’s a tradition that includes Happy Rhodes, Tori Amos, and Bjork. On her new CD is Lobotomy Sessions, Alu creates yet another new and inventive iteration of that muse.

You can hear an extended interview with her on Echoes Monday, July 21. You can also listen to an Audio Version of this Echo Location blog with music.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))