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Leila Adu finds Harmony with the Voiceless

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Leila Adu celebrates global CD release on Rai Trade/Tracce, the Italian National Radio label

New York, NY—Leila Adu reemerges to the international music scene on January 18th with her powerful new album “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker.” The 11 song CD is a raw musical travelogue of uncertainty and triumph in the exciting nomadic life of the popular New Zealand/Ghanaian singer-composer-multi-instrumentalist. Touring the globe solo and with band throughout 2009-2010 in support of her Steve Albini produced “Dark Joan” LP, Leila received a spontaneous opportunity to return to the recording studio from Rai Trade/Tracce, the Italian National Radio label. The resulting album, “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker,” primarily features her dark yet humorous songs in naked arrangements for solo voice and piano/electric keyboards. Accompanied on 4 propulsive tracks by drummer Daniele De Santis, Leila’s quirkily structured compositions speak the language of pre-war blues, sci-fi environmentalism, post-rock world music, immigration electronica and Bing Crosby.

TRACK LIST
Martian Raft
Brazen Hussey
Must Walk Slowly
Trojan Cow
Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker
The One Minute Pastry Song
Fortuna
Glass
Slick Department Store
A Moment of Peace
Cigarettes & Circus Puffs

Leila Adu has mastered the art of forging smart outsider music with a warm accessible pop core. The worldwide CD release of “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker” on January 18 is a call for celebration and reflection. It is Leila’s determined step in the journey towards a new global folklore merging primal traditions with an electronic future.

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Leila Adu at All About Jazz

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INSTRUCTION TO THE PEOPLES OF THE EARTH

“You must realize that you have the right to love beauty. You must prepare to live life to the fullest extent… Listening can be one of the greatest pleasures. You must learn to listen because by listening you will learn to see with your mind’s eye. You see, music paints pictures that only the mind can see. Open your ears so you can see with the eye of the mind.”
— Sun Ra

    (sleeve notes to Sun Song, as quoted in Forces in Motion ‘The Music & Thoughts of Anthony Braxton’ by Graham Lock)
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Interview — The Fashion Cult
 
“The BeatStylist recently had the pleasure of chatting with singer/songwriter/composer/musician Leila Adu, whose fourth album Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker is out now…”Themes are along the lines of our current armageddon/global disaster zeitgeist, portrayals of women, consumerism and good ol’ attraction and loving woes.”” Read full interview at The Fashion Cult
 
[photo Leon Dale, styling Eighty Jane]

Review — Italy’s premiere Alt Rock & Experimental Magazine ‘Blow Up’
 
“This new work recorded for Rai Trade’s beautiful Tracce series, sees her [Adu] in almost total solitude (in four songs she is joined by Daniele de Santis on drums) and comes to grips with a singer-songwriter with extremely sparse piano and vocals yet rich with off-kilter digressions. Splinters of folk, of blues but also hypnotic and ghostly prog [absit inuria verbis!] that move away from the more popular terrains and put her in a personal sphere with which you want a little time to familiarize yourself. Fascinating when you become attuned to it. (Click photo for full review in Italian)

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Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker

cover design by Fabrizio Gilardino

Leila Adu’s new album is OUT NOW online through Cargo Records UK and Goodfellas Italy, licensed by Raitrade (the Italian National Radio label who have released albums by Anthony Braxton, Robert Wyatt & Matthew Shipp.) The album is in stores in Italy where it is already receiving critical acclaim: Sentire Ascoltare and I’ve Always Wanted to be a Gangster

Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker will be in stores in the UK, USA, Japan, Germany and France in January 2011.