Music
Press
"...The soundtrack for star-crossed lovers everywhere, it's music that makes heartache and sorrow almost pleasurable. " - Venus Magazine
"...put on the new LP and you'll swear you can see your own breath. The perceptible chill arises from the austerity of the cello, piano, and guitar arrangements, and the emotional nature of Matt Menovcik's lyrics. " - The Stranger, Seattle
"...Seata quell the passionate fire burning inside all of our souls with their quiet lush orchestrations not meant to be heard low on the volume dial. " - Smother.net
“He's not nearly as famous as Gibbard, but Matt Menovcik just might be as talented, though in a strange, nonmainstream way.” - Tom Scanlon, Seattle Times
"Matt Menovcik is a top-rate songwriter." - Seattle Weekly
If I had a dollar for every time out-of-town friends reacted with shock when I told them that the Seattle music scene is not only not dead, but ferociously healthy, I sure as hell wouldn't be worried about how I was going to pay my bills this month. Up-and-comers like Hypatia Lake and Saeta are helping to push the boundaries and keep things interesting--which explains why a legend like Kramer (the genius behind Shimmy Disc Records, Bong Load, and too many great records to list) is working on a new project with Saeta's Matt Menovcik. - Barbara Mitchell, The Stranger
Saeta, pronounced, aptly enough "sigh-ata" , is one of the great secrets of Seattle music, and one of the very best of the next wave of rock bands springing up around town. - The Seattle TImes
Saeta's third album crept up behind me on whispered footsteps and clobbered me over the head with crescendos and emotion. Never have I been so surprised by an album, so unsure what to expect - Delusions of Adequacy
"Saeta demonstrate the rare ability to be both poets who express their authentic self and master the tools of their trade... in a way almost unheard of in the artistic wasteland of American music." - Message From The Homeland
This isn't the first time I've said that Saeta is a band that more people need to know about it, but I'm saying it now more firmly than I ever have before. There's a unique dynamic between the two vocalists that can't be found anywhere else, and the piano-cello instrumentations are simple yet breathtakingly effective. The songs "Grand Canyon", "Not for Today", and "Anywhere But Here" must be heard to be believed. - Punkinternational.com
Discography
Burn
Structure In The Void
Resign To Ideal
We Are Waiting All For Hope
Else Another Light Might Go Out
Photos
Bio
SAETA
Biography
"I rolled on one hip and reached in my side pocket for my razor blades and I felt the lump. Then in wonderI remembered the caressing, stroking hands of the light-bearer. For a moment it resisted coming out of my wetpocket. Then in my hand it gathered every bit of light there was and seemed red - dark red. A surge of wave pushed me against the very back of the Place. And the tempo of the sea speeded up. I had to fight the water to get out, and I had to get out. I rolled and scrambled and splashed chest deep in the surf and the brisking waves pushed me against the old sea wall.
I had to get back - had to return the talisman to its new owner. Else another light might go out."
John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent
2005 was a very difficult year for Saeta frontman, Matt Menovcik. The end of a several year relationship coupled with the decision to quit his psychotropic medication led to a downward spiral of depression, landing him twice in mental hospitals. In an attempt to pull himself out, Menovcik grasped desperately to hope, love, and beauty. It was during this time that Menovcik created the songs for Saeta's most recent album, Else Another Light Might Go Out. The title is both a reference to the book he was reading when things really fell apart and a reflection on the beauty of its meaning. This album is Matt's talisman as he emerged from that dark tunnel.
Saeta was formed in 1998 after best friends, Matt Menovcik and Lesli Wood, left Detroit, Michigan and moved to Seattle. The band features Matt Menovcik on vocals, guitar, and accordion; Lesli Wood on vocals and piano and Bob Smolenski on cello. Saeta's first album, Burn, was mixed by Carl Hultgren from the band Windy and Carl. This album caught the attention of Kramer, who produced
their next two albums, Structure In The Void and Resign To Ideal. For Saeta's fourth album, We Are Waiting All For Hope, the band worked with Steve Albini. Saeta has toured North America and Europe and shared the stage with such acts as Low, Mark Kozelek, DeVotchKa, Damien Jurado, Hem, Rasputina, and The Church.
Saeta's song "You Fade" from We Are Waiting All For Hope is currently being used in the hit Italian film Giorni e Nuvole.
Else Another Light Might Go Out is Saeta's 5th album. This time around, Matt Menovcik shared recording and mixing duties with Kramer and additionally mastered the album. The album contains the trademark vocal stylings of Matt Menovcik and Lesli Wood and possesses all of the subtlety and power we have come to expect, but at the same time Saeta's building new boundaries. Both lush and minimalist, the beauty of pain and hope bursts forth, revealing that they are one and the same to this trio.
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