Beyond Breath - The Reworks
An exciting collection of reworks taking tracks from Balladeste's acclaimed recent album 'Beyond Breath' described as an 'extraordinary beautiful listening experience' and receiving 4* Songlines review as well as radio play on both BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour and BBC Radio 3 In Tune.
Featuring an inspiring female focused line up of re-work collaborators from the contemporary classical, ambient, jazz scene - Midori Hirano, Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, Anna Phoebe and The Vernon Spring - this Remix EP brings new life to the intricate instrumental songwriting of Balladeste.
Playing with the acoustic qualities of the instrumentation and delving into the ambient, meditative yet dynamic soundworld of genre-bending string duo, the remixers take a variety of approaches, from sampling, adding their own signature instrumental sound, to creating an expansive electro-acoustic sonic experience.
PRESS/RADIO HIGHLIGHTS for 'Beyond Breath'
Features/interviews/live play on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour, Radio 3 (Night Tracks and In Tune), Soho Radio, Dutch NPR Radio 4 and Scala Radio.
"Absolutely stunning" BBC Radio 4 - Anita Rani (Woman's Hour)
“defies easy definition...very very special indeed” BBC Radio 3 -Katie Derham (In Tune)
"...an extraordinary and beautiful listening experience" Folk Radio UK
"...Narayanan’s and Franks’s collaboration is pure magic... 'Beyond Breath’ is musically speaking, by far their greatest achievement to date." BackSeat Mafia
Track by Track
Single 1 : Beyond Breath (Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres Rework) - release 18th May
Taking the spiritual feeling of Beyond Breath to another depth, Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres plays with bass organ pedal and synths to create a bed of etheral sound for the floating strings, vocal samples and delicate piano textures. The outcome, a meditative and thoughtful sound journey.
Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres is an award winning British-Belgian film composer rising in the neoclassical scene as one of the UK’s upcoming artists. Her work blends sound worlds with her love for the piano, orchestrated into a rich palette of electronica and classical music.
Single 3: Being (Midori Hirano Rework) - 16th June
Building on the original track in its entirety, Midori Hirano takes inspiration from the wave-like. undulating string phrases. With electronics and piano she creates a rich and moving sonic experience, adding her own sense of 'being' to the rework.
Midori Hirano is a critically acclaimed Berlin-based composer, producer currently part of the renowned Erased Tapes label and community.
Single 2: Prem (The Vernon Spring Rework) - release 13th July
Sampled pulsing effects of the dusky violin is enhanced with The Vernon Spring's signature piano sound, rich cluster chords and sub bass.
Sam Beste aka The Vernon Spring draws on the traditions of jazz improvisation, classical composition and subtle electronic production to make a singular and always soulful sound, leading to high praise and radio sessions with with the likes of Gilles Peterson and Radio 1's Benji B.
BEYOND BREATH REWORK EP Release - 5th August Focus Track - River (Anna Phoebe Rework)
A new take on Balladeste's popular track 'River' as featured on BBC radio 3 and BBC Radio 4, by award-winning violinist, collaborator and composer Anna Phoebe.
Marketing Plan: All artists/remixer on board to push on personal socials, artist pages and share with audience/mailing list and industry contact.
BALLADESTE BIO:
Balladeste are paving the way for an emerging new genre of Contemporary Classical meets Folk in its broadest form - Indo-Baroque meets alt-folk minimalism.
A unique collaboration and an ever evolving musical partnership between violinist Preetha Narayanan and cellist Tara Franks , Balladeste have developed a unique way of writing, weaving in and out of each other’s voices as performer/composers. With an ever increasing following since the release of their 2nd album 'Beyond Breath -Balladeste explore the versatility and sound potential of just two string instruments. Writing all co-created original music, their musical narrative is both ancient yet contemporary, devotional whilst pastoral with compositions that are vibrant, experimental, melodic and contemplative in quality - Songs without words with contemporary alt-folk twist.
Drawing on influences as far ranging as the singular melodies of visionary Hildegard of Bingham, the modal minimalism of Arvo Pärt, harmonic palette of Purcell via the minimalism of Philip Glass, Balladeste's musical breadth is equally akin to the likes of Caroline Shaw and Liam Byrne as the Madras String quartet and Silk Road Ensemble.