BLACKBIRD AND THE STORM

AUDUBON MAGAZINE:
Singer Samples Nature For a Cutting-edge Sound

Birdsong is artist and activist Marie-Juliette’s palette.
By Purbita Saha
Published: 05/29/2014

Rumor has it that Beethoven's Fifth came from the tune of a white-throated sparrow. If that's true, he wouldn't be the first, or the last, to channel birdsong through music. Artist Marie-Juliette Bird has made birds her muse as well. But she's not just drawing inspiration from them: She's also collaborating with them. With their help she's painting a bleak picture of the future on Earth -- doomed by natural disasters and extinction.

Bird's new album The Water is Rising stemmed from two unconventional ideas. First, Bird harbors the theory that human harmonies are derived from birdsong. She's heard simple melodies come out of the beaks of many songbirds. "It makes sense to me that early civilizations mimicked these," she explains.

Second, the artist had the idea to turn bird sounds into samples after getting restless with dabbling in standard genres of music, such as classical and rock. She stopped taking her cues from the rock gods and turned to nature instead.

So she began to listen. Anytime she heard something beautiful in nature she recorded it with the help of acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton. She then notated the sounds and looped them into her songs.

Making the transition between the field and the studio was difficult, especially when it came to harmonizing. By recalling her musical training, Bird overcame the challenge. For one, she recognized that birdsongs have microtones that fit into Western scales, making them largely compatible with standard melodies. Juxtaposing bird and human voices also presented a new philosophy, she says, that set a metaphor for the coexistence of organisms: In order for a harmony to work, no one species can be allowed to dominate.

The first single from The Water Is Rising is "Black Crow," an apocalyptic track that casts the crow as a harbinger of bad news. Though the crow's guttural call lacks melody, Bird says that it's the perfect vehicle for rhythm. "Broken Wings" on the other hand, employs a wider variety of field recordings: wind, thunder, crickets, wings. Bird came up with the song after observing a pair of red-winged blackbirds. They gave her insight on her own romantic relationships, she says. "It was an amazing moment where art and life met. The natural world became a mirror of my world."

Though avian art is the main focus of her album, both technically and metaphorically, Bird's lyrics can be adapted to a range of environmental issues. "They have a shadow of plaintiveness and an undercurrent of urgency," says Bird. As a resident of Boulder, Colorado, she has seen first-hand how destructive nature can be. She chose the title The Water Is Rising to communicate her fears about the mounting effects of climate change, a fear that swelled when Boulder was hit by a wall of water in 2013.

"Birds are the canary in the coal mine when it comes to seeing how climate change is affecting our world," says Bird. She feels that it's her responsibility to preserve birds through music. While living in London she received support from the Royal Society of the Protection Birds, and is now working with Denver Audubon to launch a concert series in August. In the future, she wants to thread birdsong into orchestral arrangements and children's voices.

Bird admits that her project has grown to ambitious proportions: she wants to collect every birdsong in Europe and North America. But that won't deter her from pursuing the song that started it all -- with one foot in the studio, and the other out in the wilderness.

INDIE LONDON:
SINGLE OF THE WEEK 1: BLACKBIRD & THE STORM – BLACK CROW: Colorado-based conceptual artist and singer-songwriter Blackbird & The Storm returns with her second single Black Crow. Taken from the conceptual debut album, The Water is Rising – set for release later this year – the track is a warning tale of the devastation mother nature can set upon us. As with all of Blackbird & The Storm’s music, it incorporates field recordings of nature. In this instance, the intense call of migrating crows is interwoven with the sound of genuine flood sirens giving the track a raw immediacy to offset some of its more ethereal pop elements. The result is an intoxicating track, high on melodies, soaring vocal harmonies, dark foreboding lyrics and even apocalyptic elements. If you mixed PJ Harvey with KT Tunstall, then this is somewhere close to what you might get. But Blackbird & The Storm is also very much her own artist and Black Crow is a richly compelling introduction to what she has to offer if you’re just getting acquainted.

CLASH MUSIC:

Storms are almost a staple of songwriting.

From John Lee Hoooker to The Doors, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to Neil Young, storms have appeared and re-appeared in rock mythology.

Yet for Blackbird And The Storm this wasn't some stock image - it was real. During the recording of their second album, the band were forced to flee the studio are it became submerged underwater.

The banks of a nearby river had burst, with the worst rainfall in a hundred years bearing down on their equipment. Remarkably, songwriter Marie-Juliette Bird had the swift thinking to record the sirens descending upon the studio, using them on album track 'Black Crow':

"The sirens that I used in the beginning of 'Black Crow' – these are flood warning sirens that I had incorporated into the song months before our mixing date. As I was getting ready to leave for the mixing session, the same flood sirens were going off all over town and the rain was pounding down – I felt like I was living inside of my own song. The lyrical hook in the chorus of 'Black Crow' is, simply: ‘The water is rising’. And the water, literally, was rising, all around us."

Infecting the track with an urgent, apocalyptic feel - the crow being a harbinger of death, after all - the results are stark, intrusive fare. Clash is able to premiere the video for 'Black Crow' - check it out below.
THE GIRLS ARE:
Read All About It | Blackbird & The Storm
British-born, Colorado-based singer/songwriter Blackbird & The Storm is releasing her second single next month.

As both her moniker and the title of ‘Black Crow’ suggests, she’s more than a little fond of birds, with swathes of their song incorporated into her tracks. There’s no small amount of pop nous in there, too, as the seductive, soothsaying ‘Black Crow’, with its blunt, doom-laden lyrics, proves. Listen to the track exclusively at the girls are below:

CONTACT MUSIC:
BLACK CROW is the second single to be taken from BLACKBIRD & THE STORM's forthcoming debut album THE WATER IS RISING. BLACKBIRD & THE STORM is the work of musician, singer and conceptual artist Marie-Juliette Bird who lives between Colorado and London.

BLACK CROW, like its predecessor BROKEN WINGS, samples the sounds of nature. On this specific track, loops of crow calls, lightning, thunder alongside flood sirens and audio clips of storm chasers are mixed with acoustic and electronic instruments and layered with Bird's intoxicating vocals. The lyrical theme - an undercurrent which runs through the entire album - is of humanity's relationship with nature. WhileBROKEN WINGS offered a soft, almost folk-tinged beauty, BLACK CROW's intense, more rock-edge soundscape reflects the apocalyptic message of the song, of flooding and danger. Eerily, BLACK CROW was written prior to the flooding of both the UK and the USA, but became prophetic when Colorado, where Bird was recording the single, had the worst floods in 100 years as a result of the worst rainfall of 1,000 years, all ahead of the mixing session, which was delayed due to the studio being underwater.

"The sirens that I used in the beginning of BLACK CROW - these are flood warning sirens that I had incorporated into the song months before our mixing date. As I was getting ready to leave for the mixing session, the same flood sirens were going off all over town and the rain was pounding down - I felt like I was living inside of my own song. The lyrical hook in the chorus of BLACK CROW is, simply: 'The water is rising'. And the water, literally, was rising, all around us." - Marie-Juliette Bird.

The foundational tracks of BLACK CROW were laid down at a studio in North London, under the patronage of London based Mount's Bay Records. Bird then spent a year sourcing field recordings and finishing the track in the American West, with long time collaborator, engineer Todd Ayers.

BLACKBIRD AND THE STORM's debut album, THE WATER IS RISING, will be released in 2014.

FAME MUSIC:
Blackbird & The Storm unveils “Black Crow” (out 17th February), the second single to be taken from her forthcoming debut album “The Water Is Rising”.

Black & The Storm is the exciting project by musician, singer and conceptual artist Marie-Juliette Bird who lives between Colorado and London.

Like its predecessor “Broken Wings”, “Black Crow” wonderfully samples the sounds of nature, mixed with acoustic and electronic instruments and layered with Bird’s intoxicating vocals…

Bizarrely, “Black Crow” was written just before Colorado’s worst floods in 100 years as a result of the worst rainfall of 1,000 years…Marie-Juliette Bird says: “The sirens that I used in the beginning of “Black Crow” – these are flood warning sirens that I had incorporated into the song months before our mixing date.” BLACKBIRD THE STORM2“As I was getting ready to leave for the mixing session, the same flood sirens were going off all over town and the rain was pounding down – I felt like I was living inside of my own song. The lyrical hook in the chorus of “Black Crow” is, simply: ‘The water is rising’. And the water, literally, was rising, all around us.”

FEMALE FIRST:
This is a warning' starts new single 'Black Crow', lifted from Blackbird & The Storm's upcoming album 'The Water Is Rising'.

The hypnotic and dramatic vocals that follow are spooky at times, enchanting at others.

LISTEN WITH MONGER:
Marie-Juliette Bird is not so much a musician but more a visionary, poet and artist creating experiences through sound. That is what I would say if I was to take this pretentiously and believe the hype on her website. But what Ms Bird (for she is the talent behind Blackbird & The Storm) is a kick-ass woman with a richly coloured soul capable of creating music with dark tones. 'Black Crow' cracks in to life with an air raid siren and a Stephen Hawking-esque voice before the chugging guitars and Bird's succulent, seductive voice floats through the air like vapourised velvet. The subtlety of Bird's understated performance is in keeping with the likes of PJ Harvey, Bat For Lashes, Ani De Franco and Shirley Manson at her most menacing. As the song builds to a steady crescendo of noise and melody, you know you've heard something pretty special. There's an album due later in the year which I am suddenly eagerly awaiting....and you should be too.

Reminiscent of Shakespeare Sisters' unique tones, the track explores the relationship that humanity shares with nature, and the idea that 'natural' disasters are actually the result of how humans treat the world.

Thunder, crow calls, flood sirens and audio clips of web based storm chasers are all incoporated into the track and really give it a sense of self - it's not just another song, it's daring, brave and trying to go places that others have not.

DIGITAL FIX:

Single of the Week

Blackbird And The Storm - Black Crow
Oh I do like this. Its rootsy Americana undertones and the sensual vocals of Blackbird And The Storm grips you from the get go. And with all the natural disasters hitting the world the lyrics couldn’t be more timely. A real gem.

SUBBA-CULTCHA:
Warm Americana with inventive twists buried amongst nature-based found-sounds…

SUBBA-CULTCHA.COM SAYS: “The driving acoustic riff rises above the soundscapes rummaging around the sample used, a beat pierces its way through before a crystal-clear voice ushers itself in. Blackbird and the Storm is a female singer/musician/conceptual artist based between Colorado and London. Taking nature-based found-sounds and then formulating them into soundscapes to underpin those Americana-influenced melodies catches our attention immediately (and is one hell of a hook in the world of endless Press Releases full of words but saying little). The song takes some wonderfully unpredictable twists and turns, but the warmth of the music and those delicious harmonies swelling and circling round the inventive changes keep you attentive and involved throughout. The snippets of quotes from news reports feels like a bit of an 80’s invention (and always makes me think of ELO’s ‘Calling America,’ but don’t let anyone know I’m referencing ELO, need my cool points left intact please!) By the way, kudos for including a Speak ‘n Spell sample in there! Well worthy of your time!!! Sample the track for yourself below”

blackbird

BLACKBIRD AND THE STORM is the vision and work of Marie-Juliette Bird, an artist based in London and the American West. The project was spurred by a desire to create original music, seeking inspiration from the source of melody: birdsong. The project seeks to present a vision wherein human beings and the natural world are inextricably linked; lyrics expressing an apocalyptic overview are colored by the audio witnessing of extreme climate change. Throughout the album, binaural samples of crickets, toads, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, hummingbirds, songbirds and wings-in-flight are mixed alongside musical instruments, audio samples and Marie-Juliette’s intoxicating voice. - AUDUBON MAGAZINE

Premiere: Blackbird And The Storm - Black Crow
Storm-laden songwriting...

Blackbird and the Storm

Storms are almost a staple of songwriting.
From John Lee Hoooker to The Doors, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to Neil Young, storms have appeared and re-appeared in rock mythology.
Yet for Blackbird And The Storm this wasn't some stock image - it was real. During the recording of their second album, the band were forced to flee the studio are it became submerged underwater.
The banks of a nearby river had burst, with the worst rainfall in a hundred years bearing down on their equipment. Remarkably, songwriter Marie-Juliette Bird had the swift thinking to record the sirens descending upon the studio, using them on album track 'Black Crow':
"The sirens that I used in the beginning of 'Black Crow' – these are flood warning sirens that I had incorporated into the song months before our mixing date. As I was getting ready to leave for the mixing session, the same flood sirens were going off all over town and the rain was pounding down – I felt like I was living inside of my own song. The lyrical hook in the chorus of 'Black Crow' is, simply: ‘The water is rising’. And the water, literally, was rising, all around us."
Infecting the track with an urgent, apocalyptic feel - the crow being a harbinger of death, after all - the results are stark, intrusive fare. Clash is able to premiere the video for 'Black Crow'. - CLASH MUSIC

Blackbird & The Storm Announces New Single 'Black Crow': 17th February 2014

BLACK CROW is the second single to be taken from BLACKBIRD & THE STORM's forthcoming debut album THE WATER IS RISING. BLACKBIRD & THE STORM is the work of musician, singer and conceptual artist Marie-Juliette Bird who lives between Colorado and London.

BLACK CROW, like its predecessor BROKEN WINGS, samples the sounds of nature. On this specific track, loops of crow calls, lightning, thunder alongside flood sirens and audio clips of storm chasers are mixed with acoustic and electronic instruments and layered with Bird's intoxicating vocals. The lyrical theme - an undercurrent which runs through the entire album - is of humanity's relationship with nature. WhileBROKEN WINGS offered a soft, almost folk-tinged beauty, BLACK CROW's intense, more rock-edge soundscape reflects the apocalyptic message of the song, of flooding and danger. Eerily, BLACK CROW was written prior to the flooding of both the UK and the USA, but became prophetic when Colorado, where Bird was recording the single, had the worst floods in 100 years as a result of the worst rainfall of 1,000 years, all ahead of the mixing session, which was delayed due to the studio being underwater.

"The sirens that I used in the beginning of BLACK CROW - these are flood warning sirens that I had incorporated into the song months before our mixing date. As I was getting ready to leave for the mixing session, the same flood sirens were going off all over town and the rain was pounding down - I felt like I was living inside of my own song. The lyrical hook in the chorus of BLACK CROW is, simply: 'The water is rising'. And the water, literally, was rising, all around us." - Marie-Juliette Bird.

The foundational tracks of BLACK CROW were laid down at a studio in North London, under the patronage of London based Mount's Bay Records. Bird then spent a year sourcing field recordings and finishing the track in the American West, with long time collaborator, engineer Todd Ayers.

Blackbird And The Storm's debut album, THE WATER IS RISING, will be released in 2014. - CONTACT MUSIC

The video for Blackbird & The Storm’s track Broken Wings was shot on Super 8 last summer in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. It perfectly suits the samples of crickets, toads, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, hummingbirds, songbirds and wings-in-flight which are mixed alongside musical instruments and Marie-Juliette Bird’s intoxicating voice. - MAD MACKEREL

Blackbird and the Storm is actually multi field artist Marie-Juliette Bird, and the name she’s chosen seems to match the theme of forthcoming album ‘Songs for a Drowning World’: a meditation on the relationships between humans, in all their multi-faceted ways, and nature.

The melodies have been inspired by birdsong, and plenty of natural sounds have been recorded, and this all begs the question: what does it sound like? We’ve only heard one song, ‘Broken Wings’, and the answer is a sort of acoustic Polly Scattergood if you took away the piano and just used natural noises, halfway between a lament and a summer’s musings. Broken Wings is coming out April 8th. - SUPAJAM

Blackbird & The Storm - Broken Wings
Single review by kev@thesoundofconfusion.co.uk

It's all about our feathered friends in this first single from Blackbird & The Storm's album 'Songs For A Drowning World'. The brains behind this project? Well that would be Marie-Juliette Bird, an artist who spends her time between London and the American West. With the desire to explore the relationship between nature and human nature, and also to create a different musical experience, she turned to natural music, birdsong, as an inspiration. Before you go thinking this is some hippy trying to recreate birdsong in a studio, let us point out that the music here doesn't replicate the cry of any particular bird, but does contain many samples from the natural world.

These, naturally, include birds and storms, such is the theme of the song, but much more besides. The song is breathy dreampop that's rich in texture and light in sound, mostly comprising of acoustic guitar and her own incredibly soft vocals. There is a natural instinct for fans of the world of alternative music to veer away from concepts such as this, but in truth this fits the alternative music world as well as anything, and despite certain familiar traits, there's nothing else quite like it. Plus, after a couple of listens, the sense of hope and beauty found here is enough to soften even the hardest of hearts. - THE SOUND OF CONFUSION

Single Info
Blackbird & The Storm releases her debut single ‘Broken Wings’ through Ed Records. Blackbird & the Storm is the vision and work of Marie-Juliette Bird, an artist based in London and the American West. Within ‘Broken Wings‘, binaural samples of crickets, toads, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, hummingbirds, songbirds and wings in flight are mixed alongside musical instruments and Marie-Juliette’s intimate vocals. The project was recorded at An Endless Room (formerly Mayfair Studios) in Primrose Hill in 2011. Marie-Juliette then spent a year in Colorado, sourcing and working with more field recordings. The video for ‘Broken Wings’ was written and directed by Marie-Juliette herself and shot on Super 8 last summer in Boulder, Colorado. The track is taken from her forthcoming debut album, due later this year. - AMAZING TUNES

BLACKBIRD & THE STORM
facebook.com

Introducing... Blackbird & the Storm. This is the stagename for Marie-Juliette Bird. No location details, I think she is either in London or "American West".

Her debut single, "Broken Wings", can be heard at soundcloud.com. The single is taken from her album, Songs For A Drowning World, to be out April 8th, 2013, via Ed Records. - WE HEART MUSIC

READ ALL ABOUT IT | BLACKBIRD & THE STORM
Blackbird & The Storm

British-born, Colorado-based singer/songwriter Blackbird & The Storm is releasing her second single next month.

As both her moniker and the title of ‘Black Crow’ suggests, she’s more than a little fond of birds, with swathes of their song incorporated into her tracks. There’s no small amount of pop nous in there, too, as the seductive, soothsaying ‘Black Crow’, with its blunt, doom-laden lyrics, proves. Listen to the track exclusively at the girls are below: - WHERE THE GIRLS ARE

BLACKBIRD & THE STORM - SINGLE REVIEW

Blackbird & The Storm - Black Crow

Release Date: 17th February 2014

Marie-Juliette Bird is not so much a musician but more a visionary, poet and artist creating experiences through sound. That is what I would say if I was to take this pretentiously and believe the hype on her website. But what Ms Bird (for she is the talent behind Blackbird & The Storm) is a kick-ass woman with a richly coloured soul capable of creating music with dark tones. 'Black Crow' cracks in to life with an air raid siren and a Stephen Hawking-esque voice before the chugging guitars and Bird's succulent, seductive voice floats through the air like vapourised velvet. The subtlety of Bird's understated performance is in keeping with the likes of PJ Harvey, Bat For Lashes, Ani De Franco and Shirley Manson at her most menacing. As the song builds to a steady crescendo of noise and melody, you know you've heard something pretty special. There's an album due later in the year which I am suddenly eagerly awaiting....and you should be too.

More information: https://www.facebook.com/blackbirdandthestorm - LISTEN WITH MONGER

Blackbird & The Storm - Broken Wings Single Review
by Helen Earnshaw | 8 April 2013

BY CONNATIX
Blackbird & The Storm aka Marie-Juliette Bird is an artist to keep an eye out for this year with the release of the album Songs For A Drowning World on the horizon.

And the first song to be lifted from that album is Broken Wings - a track that has quite an ethereal quality to it.

This is a track that very much explores the relationship between nature and human nature and it is very much ode or lament to the power of birdsong.

Throughout the track sounds of nature are woven into the track such as birdsong as well as the sound of thunder and this gives the song a real atmosphere.

The inclusion of these sounds is a brave move because it quite easily could have been a huge distraction from the song itself and yet it works incredibly well.

Marie-Juliette Bird has an intoxicating and rather captivating song that really does grab your attention and draw you in.

The relationship between nature and humanity is a very moving theme and Bird has produced a powerful track that really does deliver a very strong message.

Broken Wings is one of the most original sounding tracks of 2013 and I am very excited to hear what she has done with the rest of the album.

Blackbird & The Storm - Broken Wings is out now

Read more: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/music/reviews/single/blackbird-and-the-storm-single-review-287454.html#ixzz4O7V4sOM7 - FEMALE FIRST

Blackbird & The Storm - 'Black Crow' - Single Review
by Daniel Falconer | 6 February 2014

Blackbird & The Storm
'This is a warning' starts new single 'Black Crow', lifted from Blackbird & The Storm's upcoming album 'The Water Is Rising'.

The hypnotic and dramatic vocals that follow are spooky at times, enchanting at others.

Reminiscent of Shakespeare Sisters' unique tones, the track explores the relationship that humanity shares with nature, and the idea that 'natural' disasters are actually the result of how humans treat the world.

Thunder, crow calls, flood sirens and audio clips of web based storm chasers are all incoporated into the track and really give it a sense of self - it's not just another song, it's daring, brave and trying to go places that others have not.

'Blackbird & The Storm's new single 'Black Crow' is released Monday February 17.

Read more: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/music/reviews/single/blackbird-and-the-storm-black-crow-single-review-410579.html#ixzz4O7UpVehD - FEMALE FIRST

Blackbird and the Storm is the work of London and American West based solo musician/singer/artist/filmaker Marie-Juliette Bird.

Blackbird and the Storm's debut single ‘Broken Wings’ is taken from a 12-song album, 'Songs For A Drowning World'. The album is a conceptual project exploring the relationship between nature and humans. It samples crickets, toads, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, hummingbirds, songbirds and wings-in-flight, mixed alongside musical instruments and Marie-Juliette’s intoxicating voice.

The result is a new sound where life and earth weave a sensual, melancholy music.

The project was spurred by a desire to create original music, seeking inspiration from the source of melody: birds. The project's concept was part-inspaired by an article on the demise of the cuckoo, a bird that has featured heavily in human culture. Now endangered, this bird is disappearing, along with many others, as a result of human effects on the planet.

These themes carry the current of the entire album. ‘Broken Wings’ also expresses an uplifting fragility and beauty that mirrors the essence of human relationships as well as the essence of nature as a whole. The single's chorus, 'All our broken wings, they will be healed by love', voices an antidote to despair.

The video for ‘Broken Wings’ was written and directed by Marie-Juliette and shot on Super 8 last summer in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Like many areas of the American West, this area recently suffered major destruction from wildfires believed to have been fueled by global warming. Additional found footage was contributed by locals who had personally experienced the wildfires and who had captured these disasters on mobile phones or video cameras. As with the song, the video’s themes are of the natural and human worlds merging; destruction of a wildfire mirrors the violence of a fight between lovers and the healing element of rain coincides with reconciliation.

Throughout the project, birdsong - and the interrelationship between nature and humanity - create a moving theme and portend great things to come from an up and coming talent in Marie-Juliette Bird. - MUSIC MAFIA

"Black Crow" by Blackbird and The Storm :: Official from Teahm Beahm / Digabyte on Vimeo. - DIGITAL FIX

FM FAMEMAGAZINE.co.uk
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INTERVIEWS

BLACKBIRD & THE STORM ‘BLACK CROW’: “I FELT LIKE I WAS LIVING INSIDE OF MY OWN SONG”

BLACKBIRD THE STORM1Blackbird & The Storm unveils “Black Crow” (out 17th February), the second single to be taken from her forthcoming debut album “The Water Is Rising”.

Black & The Storm is the exciting project by musician, singer and conceptual artist Marie-Juliette Bird who lives between Colorado and London.

Like its predecessor “Broken Wings”, “Black Crow” wonderfully samples the sounds of nature, mixed with acoustic and electronic instruments and layered with Bird’s intoxicating vocals…

Bizarrely, “Black Crow” was written just before Colorado’s worst floods in 100 years as a result of the worst rainfall of 1,000 years…Marie-Juliette Bird says: “The sirens that I used in the beginning of “Black Crow” – these are flood warning sirens that I had incorporated into the song months before our mixing date.” BLACKBIRD THE STORM2“As I was getting ready to leave for the mixing session, the same flood sirens were going off all over town and the rain was pounding down – I felt like I was living inside of my own song. The lyrical hook in the chorus of “Black Crow” is, simply: ‘The water is rising’. And the water, literally, was rising, all around us.”

blackbirdandthestorm.com
facebook.com/blackbirdandthestorm - FAME MAGAZINE

FESTIVAL DIARIES
MIKE BOND March 17, 2013

Broken Wings is the debut single from Blackbird & The Storm, the brainchild of Marie-Juliette Bird. Taken from their Songs For A Drowning World album, a conceptual work exploring the relationship between nature and human nature, this is certainly on the more introspective and subdued side, a delicate whisper of a song.
Featuring samples of crickets, toads, hummingbirds and thunder, Blackbird & The Storm have gone to great lengths to evoke a naturalistic atmosphere with Broken Wings, the fact that Marie-Juliette Bird spent a year in Colorado sourcing the samples going a long way to proving her passion for this project. Exhibiting a gentle folk croon, Bird recalls the likes of Vashti Bunyan the Regina Spektor, delivering lullaby like melodies over delicate acoustic guitars and the aforementioned samples, this is dreamlike music, slight and fragile yet haunting and dripping with drama.
With Broken Wings, Blackbird & The Storm provide the perfect soundtrack for those gentler moments in life, a delicate treat that creeps up on you and demands your total attention.

THE SOUND OF CONFUSION
April 05, 2013

It's all about our feathered friends in this first single from Blackbird & The Storm's album 'Songs For A Drowning World'. The brains behind this project? Well that would be Marie-Juliette Bird, an artist who spends her time between London and the American West. With the desire to explore the relationship between nature and human nature, and also to create a different musical experience, she turned to natural music, birdsong, as an inspiration. Before you go thinking this is some hippy trying to recreate birdsong in a studio, let us point out that the music here doesn't replicate the cry of any particular bird, but does contain many samples from the natural world.
These, naturally, include birds and storms, such is the theme of the song, but much more besides. The song is breathy dreampop that's rich in texture and ight in sound mostly comprising of acoustic guitar and her own incredibly soft vocals. There is a natural instinct for fans of the world of aternative music to veer away from concepts such as this, but in truth this fits the alternative music world as well as anything, and despite certain familiar traits, there's nothing else quite like it. Plus, after a couple of istens, the sense of hope and beauty found here is enough to soften even the hardest of hearts.

FEMALE FIRST
HELEN EARNSHAW April 22, 2013

Blackbird & The Storm aka Marie-Juliette Bird is an artist to keep an eye out for this year with the release of the album ‘Songs For A Drowning World’ on the horizon.
And the first song to be lifted from that album is Broken Wings – a track that has quite an ethereal quality to it.
This is a track that very much explores the relationship between nature and human nature and it is very much ode or lament to the power of birdsong.
Throughout the track, sounds of nature are woven into the track such as birdsong as well as the sound of thunder and this gives the song a real atmosphere.
The inclusion of these sounds is a brave move because it quite easily could have been a huge distraction from the song itself and yet it works incredibly well.
Marie-Juliette Bird has an intoxicating and rather captivating song that really does grab your attention and draw you in.
The relationship between nature and humanity is a very moving theme and Bird has produced a powerful track that really does deliver a very strong message.
Broken Wings is one of the most original sounding tracks of 2013 and I am very excited to hear what she has done with the rest of the album.
Blackbird & The Storm – Broken Wings is out now.

WE HEART MUSIC
April 22, 2013

Introducing . . . Blackbird & The Storm. This is the stage name for Marie-Juliette Bird. No location details, I think she is either in London or ‘American West’. Her debut single, ‘Broken Wings’, can be heard at soundcloud.com. The single is taken from her album, Songs For A Drowning World, to be out April 8th, 2013, via Ed Records.

MAD MACKEREL
February 28, 2013
The video for Blackbird & The Storm’s track Broken Wings was shot on Super 8 last summer in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. It perfectly suits the samples of crickets, toads, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, hummingbirds, songbirds and wings-in-flight which are mixed alongside musical instruments and Marie-Juliette Bird’s intoxicating voice.

SUPAJAM
March 08, 2013

Blackbird and the Storm is actually multi field artist Marie-Juliette Bird, and the name she’s chosen seems to match the theme of forthcoming album ‘Songs for a Drowning World’: a meditation on the relationships between humans, in all their multi-faceted ways, and nature.
The melodies have been inspired by birdsong, and plenty of natural sounds have been recorded, and this all begs the question: what does it sound - FESTIVAL DIARIES