Paris Paloma - Allison Lorenzen - Alex Nicol - Gal Musette
Paris Paloma - yeti feat. Old Sea Brigade.
Singer-songwriter Paris Paloma has released her enchanting new single “yeti,” the anticipated follow-up to her break-out single “labour”. Featuring vocals from acclaimed indie singer/songwriter/producer Old Sea Brigade, the song offers a unique perspective on the transformative power of closure in a relationship.
Guided by her captivating vocals and lyrical prowess, Paris takes listeners on an emotive journey through the complexities of human connection. “‘yeti’ is about the quiet, healing realization that comes with giving oneself closure after a relationship; when you’ve moved through a period of intense intertwinement - almost obsession - with another, and what feels like the vast chasm of time and space between that passion, and the point of indifference towards them that is reached in the healed-over aftermath.
It’s not a spiteful, false indifference, nor a bitter apathy, but a breathing-out of sorts, when those feelings let themselves out quietly in the night, without saying goodbye or marking the day. The gentle accompanying vocals from Ben Cramer of Old Sea Brigade completes the presence of both parties, who share in this realization, so these two people become eerily connected in their acceptance of how far apart they have grown,” elaborates Paris.
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Colorado-based Allison Lorenzen's latest track "MTO (More Than Once)" is out now. Weaving some of the most muscular guitar work we've heard in Allison's work around her buzzing synths and rafter-reaching vocals, "MTO" sounds like the final climax of a Mark Fischer-influenced hauntological prom scene. Leaning into the well-deserved Julee Cruise and Kate Bush comparisons, the resonant core of "MTO" is a meditation on the cyclical way patterns retreat and return several times before we recognize them - and make choices to either embrace or change them.
The grace for self required for this work is one that Lorenzen is well acquainted with. After a nomadic stint following the breakup of her band School Dance, Allison wrote this song while contemplating how this era in her life would close. This led her operating a hot springs in Southern Colorado where sojourners come to rest and recuperate.
"MTO" was written and recorded in the shipping container that doubles as Allison's living quarters and recording studio. Following on the heels of 2022's "The Fourth Cycle", and her beloved cover of "Glycerine" with Midwife, "MTO" presages a follow up to 2021's critically acclaimed solo debut record Tender released on Whited Sepulchre Records.
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Emerging like the score of a silver screen classic that never was, the Montreal artist’s latest single ensnares with all the potency and poison of its namesake. Casting strings of a knife-edge tension against the unexpected twists that unfold with its dramatic key changes, “Hollywood” finds Nicol play a starring role in a song of downbeat and disturbing Lynchian thrills.
A song about living with the tension of unrealised aspirations while striving for gratitude in the present, “Hollywood” hits home like a bruised lament for what could have been and what may never be.
“I’ll never go to Hollywood, I’ll never be a star” sighs Nicol, seemingly stepping into the well-trodden shoes of an actor down on their luck and feeling the weight of the world. Yet for all the despair that surrounds its lead protagonist, a cathartic chorus adorned with glimmering and atmospheric arrangements finds Nicol offer a silver lining of hope; a contentment to be found in the acceptance of our fates. Mirroring some of the resentments and realisations that have earmarked chapters of his own life story, Alex explains:
“Lyrically, “Hollywood” is a reflective song in which I begrudgingly accept that I have failed to find success yet, with Hollywood symbolizing the fame-in-youth narrative that, because I am no longer young, I will never be able to claim. But if the verses are where I list all the things I will never do, in the choruses I remind myself of all that nourishes me at home, and how far I have come. I have always considered myself a late bloomer, and Hollywood ends optimistically: me and the great blue sky, and all the opportunity that it conveys. Hollywood is a signpost in my path as a musician, marking the end of my youth, in which I was ravaged by self-doubt, and the beginning of my next chapter, in which the sky's the limit.”
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Gal Musette is the artist name used by Grace Freeman, who began writing piano and guitar based lyrical compositions and performing at open mics in her home city of San Clemente, CA at the age of 10. Her graceful approach to melody-driven indie-folk has captured audiences all over Southern California.
At age 14, inspired by The Magnetic Fields’ triple album 69 Love Songs, Gal recorded her own collection titled 70 Love Songs, which caught the attention of the band, and won her an opening slot on a few of their Midwestern U.S. tour dates. In more recent years, Gal has opened for several renowned artists such as Macy Gray, Suzanne Vega, Todd Snyder, and Donavon Frankenreiter. While her artist name is taken from bal-musette, the accordion-based, waltz-style French instrumental music, Gal’s primary inspiration is drawn from songwriters including Joni Mitchell, Regina Spektor, Björk, Cocteau Twins, Burt Bacharach, Big Thief and The Cure.
In October 2021, Gal released her debut album, Backwards Lullaby, featuring a vocal duet with one of her biggest musical inspirations, Rufus Wainwright. The record explores the pangs of hopeless romances and unrequited love, what it’s like to move beyond idealized love into the acceptance of what is real and constant, as well as the cyclical nature of life and love in relationships. In July 2022, Gal released an orchestral EP consisting of three re-imagined cuts from Backwards Lullaby featuring the musicianship of Via Mardot a talented multi-instrumentalist based in Detroit, Michigan.
Gal's latest single "Into the Blue" is a breezy, euphoric song immersing the listener into a free-flowing and dreamlike aura of kaleidoscopic sounds and hopeful narratives. Gal confides, "Into The Blue" is "about letting go of all the expectations I clung on so tightly to, and attempting to break the delusional patterns of my mind, self-loathing and narrow minded thinking. The catharsis of realizing the lack of control I have even over my own mind."
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