Clara Sanabras
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Clara Sanabras

London, England, United Kingdom | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | SELF

London, England, United Kingdom | SELF
Established on Jan, 2014
Solo Folk World

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"World Record of the Week"

Hopetown House- World Record of the Week
The Barcelonan singer Clara Sanabras has made London her home. Her first album under her own name is suffused with a romantic urban melancholy that runs through the stylistic variation: country-pop swing, folk, jazz, blues. The title track, dedicated to the writer Roger Deakin, defends local history against the encroachments of the corporate high street. The ever-reliable musical arranger Harvey Brough helps Sanabras craft settings, for London’s most cosmopolitan folk musicians, that complement her voice and guitar playing. David Honigmann, - Financial Times -


""A delight throughout""

Drawing on travelling experiences, Barcelona-born Clara has compiled a fascinating document featuring a colourful palette of instruments, influences and styles, as well as a number of top musicians including Andy Hamill (bass), Mike Outram (guitar) and Julian Siegel (clarinet). Packaged with a beautiful and detailed booklet, the material slips from the speakers with deceptive charm, capturing the head and heart in equal measure. Joy, sadness and optimism ride upon the strands Clara weaves with her beguiling songwriting and the refined touches supplied by premier producer, Harvey Brough. A delight throughout. - MU Musician Magazine -


""Sumptuous sounds from classically trained Catalan""

Clara Sanabras has some backstory- her past lives including appearing with Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice and working with Stockhausen. Her second album channels nu-folk ("The Good Ship Father") haunting swing (the title track), and Brechtian cabaret on a dozen adventurous melodies that take unexpected, serpentine turns as she sings (mostly in English) in a dramatic voice over striking chamber arrangements. Her sound sits richly somewhere between Camille, Mariza and Joanna Newsom -a gorgeous place to be. Nigel Williamson- Uncut Magazine- Jan 2010 - Uncut -


""a remarkable voice""

Clara Sanabras has a remarkable voice- somewhere between Julie Felix and Nora Jones with the phrasing of Jake Thackeray and the musicianship of her band, of the Real Lowdown is astounding. Barcelona born and now a north London resident Ms Sanabras is nothing less than prolific with 17 albums to her name; well not exactly "her name" but she appears on 17 mostly Spanish or Classical albums in some capacity. Hopetown House mixes Clara's observations and experiences in a feminine Scott Walker manner over a range of clever musical arrangements. Tales of an absent father (Good Ship Father); a message on a suitcase (Luggage) and even a friend's paranoia (Not a man of many words) mingle easily alongside songs in her native language. Hopetown House (Songs of Coincidence and Fate) is sumptuously packaged and will probably attract the eye of the casual music buyer in the jazz-world music section of a record shop and will definitely appeal to the readers of the weekend broadsheets who will coo and tweet that they have discovered the new Amy/Nora/Duffy, or whoever as they listen int heir Mercedes and Lexus. - Maverick Magazine -


""vibrantly exotic world-folk""

“Richly diverse and accomplished, The Emblem underlines Clara Sanabras’s stylistic variety. This is not altogether surprising given that Sanabras has Sioux and Gypsy blood running through her veins, was born in France, raised in Barcelona and now resides in London.
Consequently her songs, her arrangements, her clear, resonant voice, and the instruments she plays –including baroque and renaissance guitars, Indian harmonium, charango and Telecaster – combine to produce what can be best described as vibrantly exotic world-folk.
Lively and spirited throughout, Sanabras’s tunes take in blues (the excellent ‘Trace Of An Accent’), Asian sounds and Latin rhythms (‘Tokyo Cherry Blossom’) and two-step country and rockabilly (‘Ode to Jimmy Jo’) while her lyrics touch on topical issues – the post banking-crisis state of the world on ‘Truth be told’, racism on ‘Trace of an Accent’ and a woman’s place in the world on ‘Woman, Girl, Juxtaposed’.
So plenty here, then, to occupy and interest, highlights and surprises are everywhere and for a taste of what lies within, check out the atmospheric ‘Dovetailing Love’, and the folksy ‘The Owls” on which Sanabras is joined to good effect by rosemary Standley (of French band, Moriarty).” Colin Hall – R2 Magazine- Jan 2012 - R2


"Clara and the Real Lowdown - Vortex, London"

While arcane, "uncommercial" groups pack out cult venues, it can be tougher for a group with a broader appeal. You can imagine Clara Sanabras's new group being a big hit with Radio 2 listeners, folkies, Prommers, Jools-watchers, Womad-goers and so on, but those fans don't rush to Dalston jazz clubs on freezing nights. Yet the band are undeterred by the low turnout, delivering two sets that draw from many colourful traditions: folk, country, cinema, theatre and Sanabras's Hispanic roots, expressed through tunes such as Mediterráneo and her own Barcelona Blues.
Sanabras, whose day job is performing early music (Charivari Agréable, the Harp Consort, Retrospect, etc), brings a refreshing twist to the singer-songwriter tradition. She has chosen her accomplices well, notably guitarist-pianist Harvey Brough and violinist Dylan Bates, who adds an inventive commentary to the wry Nothing More to Look Forward To. As a seasonal gesture, the three of them sing an unaccompanied version of There Is No Rose, a 15th-century carol.
Sanabras's vocals can change dramatically within songs, swooping from intimate lower registers to high-pitched drama. At times, the Real Lowdown recall Fairground Attraction, which also featured Roy Dodds' imaginative drumming. The band's rhythm section of Dodds and Andy Hamill (bass) bring detail and musical credibility to the rolling, feelgood rhythms, and Brough's arrangements make the most of the acoustic sounds at his disposal.
Sanabras swaps stringed instruments throughout, starting with the spine-tingling charango for Dance of Solitude. She also plays a baroque guitar, featured on Mecano's 80s hit Hijo de la Luna: the interplay between Brough's acoustic and the more throaty baroque instrument is appealing. Hopetown House foregrounds a ukelele that she "bought on eBay for £25", and her Doobies-style Telecaster on Things Behind the Sun takes the band in yet another direction.
John L Walters - The Guardian -


Discography

El Vol Dispers - Songs of Spanish Exile (SMU 606), LP forthcoming release 2014.  

Scattered Flight (SMU605) - 7" Vinyl Single, sept 2013. Launch on September 20th at Kings Place London. 

The Emblem (SMU604)- launched January 2012 - LP. Airplay and streaming for "The Emblem", "Ode to Jimmy Jo", "Trace of an Accent"

Hopetown House (SMU602) 2009 -LP
Airplay for "Hopetown House", "Snowman & I", "El nen dels cent anys", "Barcelona Blues"

Clara & The Real Lowdown (SMU601) 2007- LP
Airplay for "Mediterrneo", "Eglantine", "Blue Burning Woods"

Nada Igual (SMU600) 2006- Single
Synced to 31 episodes of "La Reina del Sur" , a 2011 Telemundo production.

Collaborations:

Featured as solo vocalist in "The Hobbit" soundtrack 2012

Featured as solo vocalist in "For Greater Glory" soundtrack 2012

Featured as solo vocalist in "Snow white and The Huntsman" soundtrack 2012

Featured a solo vocalist in Simon Schama's BBC2 documentary "The Story of the Jews" 2013

"O Euchari" arr. & performed by Clara Sanabras for the Spanish movie "De tu ventana a la ma", premiered at Seminci 2011.

"La Vida Callada" for Natacha Atlas' album "Ana Hina' (Harmonia Mundi-World Village 2008), which received raving international reviews and airplay.

"Song in Brothel" by Clara Sanabras. Sync for The Merchant of Venice -The Movie- with Al Pacino. Soundtrack (Decca 2004)

Photos

Bio

Clara Sanabras enigmatic voice and multi-instrumentalism features in top Hollywood soundtracks such as The Hobbit, The Hunger Games, Snow White and The Huntsman, For Greater Glory and The Lord of The Rings in Concert.

Born in France, raised in Barcelona, now a Londoner, Clara is an exceptionally versatile musician and captivating performer. She sings and accompanies herself on baroque guitar, Indian harmonium, oud, charango, her English lyrics breaking into Catalan, Spanish French, her music as varied as her background.

In an impressive back catalogue of recordings, theatre and screen credits, Clara features in recent top movie soundtracks including The Hobbit, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Hunger Games, has appeared at many international festivals & venues including Glastonbury, Sydney Opera House, O2 Arena, The London Jazz Festival and Womad, and collaborated with seminal artists including James Horner (Titanic), Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings), Jarvis Cocker, and she appears on screen alongside Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice movie (Mike Radford 2004), on radio with Bill Nighy in the BBC Radio 3 play The Don, on stage with director Nicholas Hytner at the National Theatre and in concert under the guidance of Karlheinz Stockhausen, the forefather of electronica. Her music will feature in Simon Schamas forthcoming documentary The Story of the Jews (Sept 2013). She has released three albums of original songs, produced by Harvey Brough (Harvey & The Wallbangers) and Peter Schwier (Dexys).

Her song Nada Igual, as heard in La Reina del Sur was no. 1 in the iTunes charts (Mexico) in June 2011.

Since she burst into the global music scene in 2006, with the highly acclaimed album Clara & The Real Lowdown (Smudged Discs), produced by maverick producer and composer Harvey Brough (Harvey and The Wallbangers), theyve recorded another two albums: Hopetown House featuring The Real Lowdown, a collective of the finest folk, jazz and world musicians in London, and The Emblem, released in February 2012.
With her forthcoming 4th album and after the success of her critically-acclaimed soundtrack credits and world tours, she returns to her roots with an elegy to exile, told in Spanish, Catalan, French and English. "Scattered Flight" - Songs of Spanish Exile, features stellar guests including Eliseo Parra, Cobla Sant Jordi, The Elysian Quartet, is produced by Harvey Brough and recorded by Peter Schwier (Dexys) and will be released in September 2013.

Band Members