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News : Laura Jean launches Eden Land at The Corner
Lenglert writes"Supported by Sly Hats, luluc and Biddy Connor.
Date: March 2nd
Time: 7:30pm
Cost: $15 or $12 pre-sale through http://www.cornerhotel.com
Sydney-born,
Melbourne-based songwriter Laura Jean
first came to national attention in 2006 with the release of her debut album
Our Swan Song. Lush and
pastoral, adorned with strings, woodwind and Laura’s beautiful modal harmonies,
Our Swan Song was a
critical and popular favourite, gaining Triple J high rotation and introducing
Laura Jean as a powerful, exotic new voice in Australian
music.
Our Swan Song
also made waves overseas,
most notably reaching the ears of Gary Lightbody, leader of Scottish pop stars
Snow Patrol, who raved about the album on the BBC and then invited Laura to join
his band onstage for two successive Australian tours in 2007. Each night, Laura
sang Martha Wainwright’s part of the duet Set The Fire To The Third
Bar, and in doing so reached
a whole new fanbase.
Laura also found
herself asked to support other international bands such as M Ward, Midlake,
Okkervil River and Richard Buckner, as well as homegrown stars of the likes of
New Buffalo and Darren Hanlon. This attention culminated in her signing a deal
with UK label Co-Operative/V2, who will release Eden Land later this year, after bringing British
listeners up to speed with a condensed EP version of Our Swan
Song.
After this kind of
reception, Laura Jean felt confident enough to aim for the stars on her next
album. An unashamed concept record, Eden Land explores ideas of self-discovery, sexual awakening and
loss of innocence through a suite of nine interconnected
songs.
“On one level it’s
a breakup album,” she says. “On another level it’s about leaving a safe
situation to experience life. And on another level this album is about becoming
aware of my sexuality. And that all ties in with the concept of Eden, someone
leaving an idyllic place, kind of pre-awareness, to experience life, which is
bound by physicality.”
As opposed to
Our Swan Song, which was
a three year labour of love, Eden Land came effortlessly, the songs written in seemingly direct
communication with Laura’s subconscious, and recorded in just five days with
Sydney producer Chris Townend (whose credits stretch all the way from The Sleepy
Jackson to Natalie Imbruglia) at his BJB Studios.
Additional vocals
and overdubs were completed back in Melbourne with Simon Grounds, producer of
Our Swan Song, at
Bakehouse Studios. But compared to her debut, Eden Land was born almost fully-formed. “It came
together very naturally,” says Laura. “It’s very hard to explain, but it was
just there.”
Unlike the
arm-long list of musicians on her debut, Laura assembled a core band for Eden
Land, featuring Biddy Connor
(viola), Jen Sholakis (drums, percussion), Geoff Dunbar (bass) and Martin
Mackerras (clarinet). The Eden Land Choir, whose massed vocals grace tracks like
Yellow Moon and Love
Is Going To Lead Us, is made
up of Laura and her bandmembers, plus guests such as Paddy Mann (Grand Salvo),
Oliver Mann, blues performer Liz Stringer and Lehmann Smith (Kes
Band).
Singularly assured
and strikingly beautiful, Eden Land is a powerful, ambitious record, suffused with an
otherworldly atmosphere which struck even Laura as she was writing it. “I
realised that I was speaking about a reality that wasn’t necessarily earthly,
but could be from a parallel place,” she says. “I decided about halfway through
that I could hear a land called Eden Land.”
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