Monday, April 29, 2013

EIC's 10Q's w/ Ela Orleans

"..ingenuity through familiarity..with a cinematic flair.." 


Ela Orleans
Philharmonic Phantasm

Ela Orleans Bio:
Ela Orleans invites us into a dreamily slow and cinematically evocative narrative world with her music. Ela Orleans is a Polish musician now based in Glasgow, Scotland, having arrived there by way of Brooklyn NY. She was a member of heavenly pop collagists Hassle Hound, has played with various luminaries of the New York experimental and noise scenes and is a composer for TV. Ela Orleans has a unique voice, gifting us fragile harmonies which are exquisite without being sentimental. She is Moondogmatic in her intransigent commitment to producing compositions of subtlety and incongruent beauty. She has a number of solo recordings and numerous collaborative releases on labels such as Clan Destine Records, La Station Radar, Night People, Twisted Nerve and Staubgold. She utilises electronics and her softly spun vocal to make some of the finest echo-drenched ’60s chamber pop around. Ela’s ability to flip her sound into more panoramic symphonic expanses is deeply uncanny and the perfect counterbalance for her breezy, baroque-flavored moments. During her career she released “High Moon Low Sun” CD, 2008 (Setola Di Maiale), “Lost” LP, 2009 “Mars Is Heaven”, 2011 (La Station Radar) and “NEO PI-R”, 2011 and 2LP “Tumult in Clouds”, 2012 (Clan Destine Records). She also released a split LP “Double Feature” with Dirty Beaches (Night People and La Station Radar) as well as contributed to the four way split LP “Statement” with Slim Twig, Dirty Beaches and U.S Girls (Clan Destine Records). Recently she released “80 Minutes of Funk” a split cassette with Curt Crackrach featuring 40 minutes of some of her composition work for TV and Radio reimagined and remixed (Clan Destine Records). She has played with Dirty Beaches, Lower Dens, The KVB, Jackie O Motherfucker, The Pheromoans, and many others.


Hello, how are you?
Hi! I am good... sorry this took me for ever. been recovering from major operation for last 12 weeks but I am making great progress every day.  Just went out for the first time this year, saw Pheromoans playing and had some wine...  getting ready for the show next week , it's going to be a challenge; physical and mental.

What are you currently listening to?
Throbbing Gristle's latest  'Desertshore / The Final Report' 2xLP, Human League's 'Travelogue', a new EP by Golden Teacher - Glasgow based phenomenal band... and of course new releases on Clan Destine Records: Femminielli's 'Shanghai C'est Beau' LP, and new tapes by Apostille / DNBL, Party Trash and World Peace; Jazz, Dub and Soundtracks are spinning in between.

When did this project come about, whom/what were your biggest influences?
I started to work on my solo recordings around 2000; It was some sort of sound diary (I was in the Glasgow based band called Hassle Hound before that ) I started to work in this enormous  theatre in Warsaw which had some amazing recording facilities I had access to after hours. It was great... I did my first score for the national theatre production, total fiasco... but then I sent the tape with my experiments to this competition I read about in newspaper and I won it; It was a participation in the workshop called Sounds D with Markus Schmickler. He probably was the greatest influence on me; he encouraged me to treat music seriously, I felt like a favorite student for the first time, he took me for a pizza and had gave me the most inspiring pep talk. There has been quite a few great friends and labels who have been very motivating. My home - Clan Destine Records kicks my complacent ass very hard. As per inspiration for the music itself... all my best ideas come to me during a walk. Glasgow has some incredible, quiet parks... my favorite is Kelvin River Walkway in Kelvingrove Park... As per musical influence, I am enormously motivated by great productions of Dub, Hip Hop, Jazz and Soundtrack masters. I also love Ambient Noise, street noise and everything which is dynamic and heart-rending.

Care to tell us a little bit about your latest release 'Tumult In Clouds'?
It was released on 12.12.12. on Clan Destine Records. I was reading a lot of poetry at the time and before making it and have been spending some time in Glasgow library and second hand book stores. I had an idea of a musical journey in the style of a poetry book, or book of psalms. As much as I understand and appreciate concepts they are of little use to me. I just like to work. I worked very systematically for months and gathered over hundred minutes of music. Some of it ended on another project I was working on - the split tape with Curt Crackrach "80 Minutes of Funk" (on Clan Destine too). During the recording time there was a lot of technical experimentation and classical score reading. Madlib, ESG as DJ Shadow were my patrons during that whole time.

Will you be touring for said release?
I would like to. I have a few shows already planned in Europe for the spring and early summer. Definitely Sweden and France and  a few shows in UK. I do realize though that my music doesn't  benefit from live performance at just any venue so I rather be careful and not fall into the tour frenzy. I am not desperate and don't mind my career developing slowly.

Your music seems to be all over the place when it comes to placing a genre on it, do you have a specific style you prefer to write or does it just depend on your mood?
One of my musical mentors (not very famous one) told me during my final project assessment, that I need to get out of my box... another one (very famous) defended me then and said that he likes my box... So I don't know... All I know is that I do care about my fans who buy my records and I do not want to sell them crap. As simple as that. I make music I want to hear.

Got any other projects we should know about?
At the moment I am working on the noise project with SKITTER and dub project with Curt Crackrach. These are just key words... I also talk to Felicia Atkinson aka Je Suis Le Petit Chevalier about "Polish" project... Really looking forward to the collaboration with fantastic Letha Rodman Melchior.  And more solo work and TV work. A lot of work...

What movie would work best on mute while listening to you music?
'Man With The Movie Camera' by Dziga Vertov, Chris Marker's movie 'La Jetée', 'David Holzman's Diary' by Jim McBride, or movies by Kuchar Brothers or Bruce Conner... too many to list.

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
That's impossible...  probably Bach's 'Chorales'.

Are you living your dream?
I have a very rational relation with my dreams so it is the other way round - I dream my life.

Thanx Ela!

Ela Orleans is currently touring Europe maybe the US shortly after? Til' then, make sure you listen to every thing she has to offer (it's all pretty spectacular)...

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