news archive for Leila Adu
San Fran Bathhouse presents a killer line-up for this one off Wellington show…….explorations, new creations and unreleased adventures from the following artists….
Leila Adu (check her recent MTV Iggy Artist of the Week)
Riki Gooch
Alphabethed
The Labcoats
with selection support from MLKBDGR (rosco & izz the wizzz )
$15 pre-sales & $20 on the door!!
Tickets available now online Under the Radar or instore at Slow Boat Records on Cuba Street
After a heated voting session, Leila has been chosen as MTV Iggy’s Artist of the Week! We’d like to give a huge thanks to fans for voting around the globe and special thanks to everyone for spreading the word, tweeters, facebookers and bloggers such as Bold As Love and to MTV Iggy for zoning into music from downunder!
“The readers have spoken. This week, we stray away from conventional logic to honor New Zealand’s jazzy, delightfully erratic alt-pop virtuoso Leila Adu, our new Artist of the Week!…” by Halley — Read more: Artist of the Week: New Zealand’s Unpredictable Leila Adu
“Leila Adu is an artist with the ability to strike endlessly fascinating balances. She is a classically trained pianist, with a graduate degree in composition, who plays a lot of rock clubs and festivals. Her music combines the dissonance of avant garde composers and free jazz artists like Sonny Sharrock with the playful experimentation and fierce social commentary of punk provocateurs like Nina Hagen and Eve Libertine…” by Beverly — Read More: Bands We Like: New Zealander Leila Adu’s Mercurial Keys
Sunday May 15 3pm – 7pm
Anzac Hall
Featherston
Leila will play alongside a group of musicians and dancers including Warren Maxwell and his headlining band Trinity Roots along with Urban Dance and Rescue, The Buttercuts, Paddy Bleakley and his band of fellow funky freaks. The ‘Us for Them’ event is put on by the Te Waka Toi o Paetumokai Featherston Arts Trust uniting Wairarapa communities to raise funds for Christchurch Women’s Refuge, an organisation that helps families and communities create better futures for themselves by supporting women and children to become and stay safe from family violence. Please Support the Refuge who are in special need after recent government funding cuts and the Christchurch earthquake.
Friday 20 May Midday – 3pm
Plum Cafe
103 Cuba Street
Wellington
The Big Busk 2011 is part of New Zealand Music Month in May, bringing together hundreds of Kiwis singing New Zealand music for New Zealand children with cancer. Plum Cafe is hosting Leila Adu, Barnaby Weir, Louis Baker, Lisa Tomlins, Chris Yeabsley, Eva Prouse, Ryan Prebble, Lucien Johnson, Iva Lamkum, Dan Yeabsley, Nikita Bryant, Trya Keelan, Claire Terry, Mara Simpson, King Homeboy, Toby Laing and Andy Mauafua. How you can help
Between concerts in Europe and New York for the ‘Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker’ CD release tour, Leila has detoured to New Zealand to visit friends and family affected by the Februay 22 Christchurch earthquake. Click here for Rose Quartz blog’s Christchurch Earthquake Relief Fundraiser Compilation
With no venues left open in her hometown, Leila performed an impromptu house concert in Christchurch and a tour concert in the capital of Wellington where she found brilliant Film Director and Choreographer, Alyx Duncan— director of the award-winning music video ‘Fuji’ for Wellington-based band Minuit
Alyx and Leila are working towards the video single for a new album – the track was recorded in London by Alex Morris at the Briggs Warehouse and features Leila’s vocals, rhodes & analog synths with De Santis (aka MDF) drums
Leila Adu has completed the European leg of the ‘Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker’ CD Release Tour and she hits the States again in the Spring. She played in duo with Orlando Greenhill with Pitch Like Masses, Falsetto Teeth & Peter Mayer in LA and continued through Europe with the ‘Ode’ drummer Daniele de Santis, along with Mills Projects, Dead Days Beyond Help, Limeheaded Dog, Poino, Otto Fischer & Dave I.D.
‘Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker’ has garnered reviews by Beverly at MTV Iggy, Kambui at URB ALT, Gianluca Diana of Alias and Rock IT, Antonio Pellicori of All About Jazz Italy, Giancarlo Turra of Sentire Ascoltare and Enrico Bettinello of Blow Up, among others. The CD is available online and as a physical import in the U.S., as well as in selected European stores. Thanks to everyone who has already purchased ‘Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker,’ as well as Leila’s previous albums!
The ‘Fortuna’ video single directed by Boston Fielder has been viewed 660 times in 5 days, with an independent marketing campaign. Leila is already working on a new avant-garde electro song album with hot producers around the globe and will be represented at SXSW 2011.
Leila Adu caps European leg of Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker Tour with debut of the music video “Fortuna”
“…Leila Adu is a Revelation…” – Robert Wyatt, legendary founder of Soft Machine and Bjork collaborator
“Leila Adu is a rebel-inspirer. And not in the way that calls for the raising of fists, or the hurling of sharp word-blades. Her defiance is decided… Anger isn’t its mother. Wonder may be.” – Purple Magazine
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Leila Adu. Photo by Leon Dale. Styling by EightyJane
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Please PLAY, POST & SHARE
“Fortuna” is the second single and first video from Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker by Leila Adu
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[VIDEO – YOUTUBE in HIGH DEFINITION]:
Leila Adu – “Fortuna” Video [2011] Tracce/Rai Trade
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Read reviews of Leila Adu’s Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker HERE
Touching down in locales as varied as Los Angeles, London, Rome, Sicily and Berlin, Leila Adu has successfully completed the first segment of her recent “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker” album tour. Emboldened by a steady flow of critical acclaim, the London-born Ghanaian/New Zealander steals a moment to release the music video for “Fortuna,” the second single from “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker.” “Fortuna” will appear on popular music media channels, websites and blogs throughout the globe beginning on Tuesday, March 8th.
“Fortuna” features recent performance video of Leila on organ/vocals accompanied by her drummer, De Santis in Berlin’s intimate music venue, Ausland. Video director Boston Fielder and his production group Odd Endeavors sought to reveal the ethereal yet dissonant blues of the song by using images captured during the heat of the tour with basic consumer video cameras. “Fortuna” lyrics of loneliness and perseverence such as “What goes down must come up/A circle or a cycle or a wheel” are realized through the use of raw found footage, time lapse manipulations, abstract layering and slow motion movement studies. Fielder says “there is a dreamy almost innocent quality to Leila’s work that can suddenly be usurped by waves of musical aggression. That dichotomy is what I wanted to capture. It’s what makes her music SOUL music.”
Leila Adu is humble yet confidently leaping from time zone to time zone in search of the next great adventure. She is an artist whose musical fortunes are on the rise internationally. It’s only fitting that “Fortuna” be her next offering to the world.
Leila Adu is available for interviews and other press opportunities.
Click HERE for Hi-Res images of Leila Adu.
Contact: Jess Levy at Little Red Hen Publishing for more information.
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Leila Adu
Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker
(S/R, 1/18/2011)
Track Listing:
01. Martian Raft
02. Brazen Hussy
03. Must Walk Slowly
04. Trojan Cow
05. Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker
06. The One Minute Pastry Song
07. Fortuna
08. Glass
09. Slick Department Store
10. A Moment of Peace
11. Cigarettes and Circus Puffs
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Leila Adu Links
WEBSITE : FACEBOOK : MYSPACE : TWITTER : YOUTUBE : BANDCAMP : URB ALT
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Leila Adu Management and Bookings
EMAIL
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Friday 25 februar @ 21:00
Leila Adu + Mills Projects
Ausland
Lychener Str. 60, Prenzlauerberg, D-10437
BERLIN
– Check out a Live Review of the Rome Concert “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker CD Release Tour” here: Inkoma Zine
Leila Adu Leaves the Assembly Line for the “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker” CD Release Tour
Leila Adu embarks on a 2 month tour of the US, United Kingdom and Europe in support of her new CD released on Rai Trade/Tracce
London, United Kingdom – February 8, 2011 – Winter is arching towards Spring with singer/keyboardist/composer Leila Adu touring the US and UK/Europe in support of her critically acclaimed new album “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker.” Released January 18th on Italy’s Rai Trade/Tracce label, Leila’s work on the album has been sited as “a revelation” (by legendary Soft Machine founder Robert Wyatt), “Alternative-Alternative” and “Joni Mitchell brimming with melanin.” Leila Adu is ready to bring all those declarations home.
Born in London of Ghanaian and New Zealand descent, Leila has made quite a name for herself on the global experimental pop and improvisational circuit. The “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker” Tour which began in Los Angeles, CA, on January 28, crosses Europe in February-March (shows still being added) and climaxes with a special homecoming CD release show in London. The tour features her dark yet humorous songs speaking the language of pre-war blues, sci-fi environmentalism, immigration electronica and Bing Crosby . Leila is accompanied on drums by noted Italian electronic producer Daniele De Santis, with some dates featuring supporting artists such as Otto Fischer, Mills Projects and Dave I.D.
Leila Adu has been hailed as an artist who is “a rebel inspirer.” She says “the world is a beautiful place but in this moment there is a lot of pain and injustice that is not being fully addressed. Art should reflect that.” Armed with a strong belief in the power of live music, “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker” (tour and CD) seeks to challenge the status quo and comfort the challenged. The great reviews are coming in but Leila’s journey has just begun.
The “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker” Tour Dates (more to be added later)
friday january 28 @ 9:00 PM
Leila Adu with Orlando Greenhill
The Mezz Bar
501 South Spring Street
LOS ANGELES CA 90014
mercoledì 16 febbraio @ 22.00
Leila Adu (solo)
Circolo Caracol
via Battichiodi
PISA
giovedì 17 febbraio @ 21:30
Leila Adu with Daniele De Santis
Fanfulla 101
via Fanfulla da Lodi, 101
ROME
venderdì 18 February@22:00
Leila Adu + Accademia del Danno
Circolo Arci Lebowski
Corso Vittorio veneto 817
RAGUSA
Italy 97100
freitag 25 februar @ 21:00
Leila Adu + Mills Projects
Ausland
Lychener Str. 60, D-10437
BERLIN
thursday 3 march @ 8:00 PM
Leila Adu + Otto Fischer solo
The Vortex
11 Gillett Street, Dalston
LONDON
The “Ode to the Unknown Factory Tour” is sponsored by URB ALT Media and Little Red Hen Publishing.
Contact: K’China Li for 4961 Polemics
email: urbalternative@gmail.com
twitter: urbalt
facebook: www.facebook.com/LeilaAduMusic
website: www.leilaadu.com/media-relations
Leila Adu has mastered the art of forging smart outsider music with a warm accessible core.
Her new album “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker” is a determined step in a journey towards a new artistic folklore merging a century of musical traditions with an electronic future. It speaks the language of pre-war blues, world music, post rock electronica and truly eclectic folk‐pop.
PERFORMANCES START AT 9.00 PM
TICKETS £7.50 @ticketweb or £10.00 at the door
‘Up Close & Intimate’ Series
saturday 5 march @ 8:00 PM
Leila Adu
Arch1 Members’ Club
Cranberry Lane
West Ham, E16 4PD
LONDON
ATLANTA
Bakery
Joyscout
LOS ANGELES
Waberi
Pulp Fiction parking lot
Leimert Park by night
Winter in Leimert Park
Kaos 3333
Rehearsing with Oddrocker at the Kaos Network
me, Ben Caldwell & Orlando “Oddrocker” Greenhill at the Kaos Network
— Caldwell says “the Sanskrit term for chaos is ‘where brilliant dreams are born.'”