Artist Of The Week -- Emiliana Torrini

Following Emilian Torrini critically acclaimed albums Love In The Time Of Science and her Rough Trade debut Fisherman's Woman, Me And Armini sees her working once again with her longtime producer/collaborator Dan Carey, resulting in what we feel is destined to be one of the loveliest albums of 2008.

Me And Armini is a hugely ambitious and aspirational pop record with Emilíana’s soaring voice center stage, bolstered by a rich gamut of musical styles. From the summery skank of the title track to the surging, breathless “Jungle Drum”, the yearning “Big Jumps”,and much more in between, Me And Armini is a truly fantastic album.

Emilíana cheerfully describes sitting with a friend in a cemetery in Nice, staring at the gravestones and huge epitaphs; "these beautiful angels and tombstones, how silly - that's all life comes to. People really want to believe there is something more, it makes them lazy about the moment.” “Big Jumps” is about taking those chances - chiming guitar and delicate synth swooshes, combine with Emilíana’s yearning voice to unforgettable effect.

The pedigree paring of Emilíana's song writing and Carey's sonic alchemy previously combined to world-beating effect when they co-wrote/produced “Slow” for Kylie Minogue, and individually when Emilíana sang “Gollum’s Song” on the soundtrack for The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, Dan has also handled production work on the new Franz Ferdinand and recent Hot Chip records.

Emilíana beams with joy talking about working with Carey; "Dan will play something and I will see a panoramic view of what I want to sing about. We’re always laughing, coming up with mad ideas, I’ll say ‘lets do a Chinese acid version of “Hey Joe” and he instantly will play something that sounds exactly like that. ‘Thank God we are working together’ he said ‘otherwise no one would understand you!’ People search for their musical partner all their life and I've found mine".

Carey explains; “we wanted it to sound like what would happen if you left a couple of kids in a studio with all the guitars, microphones and instruments in the studio plugged in and ready to record. We tried not to demo the songs at all, just doing things in one take to try and preserve the immediacy, and just generally have fun!”

This easy rapport meant the record was written in just two and a half weeks, with long breaks in between, a change in the songwriting process for Emilíana – "It’s taken me a while to realize that songs just want to be born, it has very little to do with you. It’s like a room full of balloons and you’re pulling one down by its string…”

Songwriting took place in Oxford and Emilíana’s native Iceland (where she holds the record for the most weeks at the number one album spot); “Iceland is a big influence for me – the landscape, the people, my family…my Aunt and I decided to go for a little drive and six hours later we were on top of Snaefells glacier in the middle of the bright night, we were walking through these caves that people used to live in–called the singing caves - you could really feel the weird energy in some of the places. We spent most of the night spotting animal shapes in the ice and frightening ourselves in the silence above the clouds.”

Me And Armini will be released This Tuesday September 9, 2008 by Rough Trade Records.

Download: "Me and Armini"


www.myspace.com/emilianatorrini