Posts Tagged ‘A.O. Gerber’

JOHANNA SAMUELS – ” High Tide for One “

Posted: January 23, 2021 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Johanna Samuels broadens the definition of pop music. The melodically and lyrically focused singer-songwriter stands on the shoulders of the great musicians of the 1960’s and 70’s she manages to create a sound and sense of musical place that is completely her own. Although Johanna Samuels has been sharing her music with the world since back in 2016, there’s a certain buzz around her of late that suggests an artist very much on the up. Back in October, Johanna shared a new single, “High Tide for One”, the first offering from her upcoming Sam Evian-produced album, due this Spring as a co-release between up-and-coming UK label, Basin Rock and Mama Bird Recording Co. The album was recorded in the Castskill Mountains alongside a small band of musicians, and features guest vocals from a stunning array of female singers, including the likes of A.O. Gerber, Lomelda and Courtney Marie Andrews.

Born in New York, and named after a Bob Dylan song, Johanna’s path to music was never really in doubt. After re-locating to Los Angeles, Johanna has spent the best part of a decade honing her song writing craft and learning to find a way to balance her inherent way with a melody while crucially finding plenty to say. Thankfully, High Tide for One was a particularly exciting example of Johanna achieving exactly that. The track was written in response to watching Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, as Johanna recalls, “it felt a bit hopeless. I felt exhausted, and for a while, I didn’t have the strength to explain it or try to talk it through with anyone who wasn’t working to change it”. These feelings are set to a perhaps contrastingly lush backing, as warm Rhodes-piano and a gorgeous-meander of slide-guitar, the breeziness of the musical backing set against the steely quality of the vocal, as she sings, “last night I saw that man on TV, his tears tasted like silver bullets and supremacy“. It may only be a single track, yet there was plenty within it to suggest Johanna Samuels might just be one of 2021’s most important musical voices.

Released October 27th, 2020
2020 Mama Bird Recording Co.

A.O. GERBER – ” Another Place To Need “

Posted: December 26, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Three years in the making, and A.O. Gerber’s debut album, “Another Place to Need”, could not have come along at a better time. It’s a collection of songs that envelop and surround the listener, but there’s an ethereality at play that suggests a haunting or, even, haunted presence – dreams and fantasy over cold, hard immediacy.

For all the explosive news and fanfare this year brought us, it’s funny that much of our days were pushed into a more muted, understated version of existence. Expansive and warm-toned, Another Place To Need is an album that balances these two oppositional poles with a lot of grace and insight. “What is there left to do but fall into the labyrinth of my mind?” her honey voice asks on “Every Time,” and we just get to sit there and be lucky she let us fall with her for a bit. A.O. Gerber is a singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA.

released May 22nd, 2020

Produced by A.O. Gerber and Madeline Kenney

The Band:
A.O. Gerber – bass, guitar, piano, synth, vocals, wurlitzer,Alex Oñate – drums and percussion Madison Megna – bass, guitar, synth GG – guitar, vocals Chris Pucher – guitar Madeline Kenney – bass, guitar, percussion, synth, vocals, wurlitzer Noah Weinman – trumpet Sasami Ashworth – french horn Haisem Khalfani – saxophone Marina Allen – vocals on “Strangers”
Phil Hartunian – clarinet on “Full Bloom” Philippe Bronchtein – pedal steel on “In the Morning” Jacob Goldman – guitar, piano, synth, vocals on “All I’ve Known”
Scott Brown – bass on “Every Time” and “Old Blue”

A.O. Gerber’s debut album ‘Another Place to Need’ out now on Hand In Hive/Copper Mouth Records

A.O. GERBER – ” Another Other Place “

Posted: September 19, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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another other place

To our minds at least, A.O. Gerber has been one of the break-out artists of 2020. The Los Angeles-based songwriter released her debut album, Another Place To Need, back in May on Hand In Hive, drawing acclaim from the likes of NPR, Gold Flake Paint and The Line Of Best Fit. The result of three years of recording, the album’s release should have brought with it a host of exciting tour dates, instead A.O. has found herself balancing a full-time job, while debating the importance of sharing music in a turbulent world. With that in mind, today marks the release of A.O’s new stripped back EP, Another Other Place, featuring three re-workings of tracks from her debut album, previewed earlier this week by the wonderful Bleeders (stripped).

While these recordings are new, the inspiration behind them actually dates back to when the tracks were first written, as A.O. explains, “there was a spooky quality to the original demo of “Strangers” that I loved and I almost released it that way initially“. Inspired by the sound of that demo, A.O. sought to capture the same quality in Bleeders, a track that, “came from very dark moments in my life“. While the album version of Bleeders stands out for it’s processed beat and wobbly synth bed, here A.O. seems to channel a different world. Her voice is raw and crackling, the only adornment coming from the reverberating piano, sounding like she’s alone in some cavernous hall, almost absent mindedly plucking out chords as her minds runs circles, trying to make sense of it all, “blue eyes tearing their way through my heart all your true lies I sentence myself, it’s the darkest part of your holy grip on me”. Peeling back the layers of the track seems to somehow get down it’s very core, the troubled tenderness, the quiet longing, the perfect escapism, it’s really rather magical.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBmTT8g6drc

Another Other Place is out today via Hand In Hive.