Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"Seven lush, lonely songs that owe something to the Delta but wouldn't be out of place in a Berlin cabaret."
(review of "Vanity Fair" EP) - Austin Chronicle
Hello Lovers named one of the "Austin Bands to Watch in 2007" by The Onion's A.V. Club. - The Onion
"In a welcome respite from bands serving up the same old guitar/bass/drums combo, Austin's Hello Lovers eschews these altogether for instruments not just any idiot can fake, including piano, cello, accordion, and violin. Made up of classically trained musicians...the band creates melancholy chamber pop that should appeal to the conservatory as well as the clubs. John King is an unusual bandleader, relying on surrealist juxtaposition and occassionally gothic imagery to weave his alternately intimate and unsettling tales." - The Onion
Discography
"Vanity Fair" EP (2006, Inchworm Records)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Hello Lovers is a string chamber group with vocal from Austin, Texas.
They perform music rooted in jazz and the blues with a pop sensibility and a firm footing in romantic period classical chamber form.
The group is comprised of both conservatory trained professional musicians and players who have trained independently. Its members have had an active involvement in the punk, jazz improvisation and fashionable rock scenes of Austin, San Francisco, and New York City.
Composer John Christian King (Kodiak/les Messieurs du Rock) founded Hello Lovers as an umbrella title for experimental works. The group began to find its voice in a yearlong Negro spiritual workshop coordinated by Mr. King. From there, King began working on a synthesis of traditional folk-song writing, combining his own jazz improv training with an unyielding fascination for chamber music.
The music began to take shape when King assembled a group for a recording session through musical colleagues. He was introduced to Masha Poloskova, violinist and graduate of the renowned conservatory of Moscow; Mollie Fischer (Tuna Helpers), cellist and recent graduate of the Kansas City conservatory of music; and Andy Hadaway (The Innocent/AM Syndicate), one of Austins most prolific sidemen and the acclaimed composer for Austins Spank Dance Company. It is these four who now make-up the current group, collectively known as Hello Lovers.
Their initial studio effort was recorded in August of 2005 at Means of Production Studio in Austin. This session resulted in their debut EP, Vanity Fair, released by Inchworm Records on December 19, 2006. The EP features seven tracks, including standouts My Girlfriend Is A Gay Pirate, A) Fall B) Fell Flora, and the first single, The Ribbon Moves.
The groups sound has been compared to contemporaries Antony and the Johnsons, Scott Walker and Devendra Banhart.
In the words of one member of their audience, Ill take this as the one hour of the day I didnt want to kill myself.
More to come
Links
