Événement

Jesca Hoop w/ Jesse Harris

Jesca Hoop has lived all over the map, and her rich life experience is reflected in her distinctive voice and natural gift for inventive song craft. Hoop learned to sing at an early age, harmonizing with her musical Mormon family in northern California. She began writing highly idiosyncratic songs at the age of 14 to keep her company on her long walks to school. At 16, Hoop broke away from her strict upbringing and began what she calls her 'life as a raccoon', off the grid & close to nature. Rambling through the high mountain deserts of the Southwest and along the coastlines of the Northwest, she worked as a wilderness survival guide and chalked up skills in farming, surveying, and carpentry. Her songwriting continued throughout, shared on porches, in deep river canyons and around campfires.
In 2004 the desire to share these songs on a broader scale set in. She settled in Los Angeles, where she honed her songwriting craft and developed a reputation as a unique and beguiling live performer of real substance. Though she now resides in Manchester, England, Hoop returned to Los Angeles to record her third album, The House That Jack Built. Jesca has quite the growing collection of fans in high places: Tom Waits described her music as being "like a four sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch or red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night". Peter Gabriel took her to South America to sing with him, and in recent years she has been hand picked to play as support on tour for Eels, Andrew Bird, Punch Brothers and Elbow: Elbow's Guy Garvey even had her do a stint as guest presenter on his BBC radio show in early 2012, to great reception. The follow up to 2009's critically acclaimed Hunting My Dress, this new record displays a striking duality: light and dark, head and heart, it juxtaposes the macabre and visceral with a disarmingly candid intimacy. The resulting combination is powerfully evocative, with overarching themes of biology, nature and humanity Hoop's stone-turning observations are mired in the equal beauty and violence of a nature that, for her, is clearly red in tooth and claw.

Jesse Harris is an accomplished singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer. Best known for having written and played guitar on Norah Jones' breakout hit "Don't Know Why" (for which he won the 2003 Grammy Award for Song Of The Year), he has also had his songs recorded by numerous other artists, including Smokey Robinson, Willie Nelson, Cat Power, Solomon Burke, and Emmylou Harris. As a solo artist, Jesse has released over 10 albums, including his forthcoming release, titled Sub Rosa."Music is to Brazil what food is to Italy something they just do better than a lot of other countries," says Jesse Harris. "At times I've been obsessed with it, particularly the recordings of the 60s and 70s."Harris waxes rhapsodic about Brazil because it's the center of his new album, Sub Rosa. Predominantly recorded and mixed in Rio de Janeiro with a cast of local luminaries, it's Harris' 11th record of his own material and it shines the spotlight (and bright tropical sun) on an artist who people are more used to expect to find hiding in the shadows. What started as an invitation from friends to spend a month in Rio eventually evolved into a stellar album that deftly weaves Brazilian-influenced arrangements into Harris' understated folk-pop. After years of trips and tours there, never spending more than a week or two at a time, Harris decamped to Rio for January of 2011, delving into the city's rich music scene and beginning friendships and collaborations with musicians like Dadi, Maria Gadu and Vinicius Cantuaria. For Harris, Sub Rosa is the fruition of a remarkable career, as well as the start of a new chapter where the spotlight is firmly on him. "I worked harder on this recording than on any other before," he states. "In the past, I've been a bit diffident about my own albums, almost excusing them for some reason, even though deep down I felt strongly about them. Subsequently, I wasn't 100% driven to get behind them and tour, but now all I feel like doing is my own thing."One listen to Sub Rosa, and you'll champion Harris' decision. Smart, wistful, and confident, it's immediately charming and subtly complex. With the help of Brazil's sympathetic sunshine and a little help from his friends, there are no more shadows left to hide in.