"...close-harmonies that melt the heart...” (Richard Morrison, The Times)
Following their critically acclaimed debut album Songspin the Juice Vocal Ensemble release their eagerly awaited second album on the Nonclassical label.
"The all female vocal trio, Juice, are something special....these three are feisty and will take on anything....the variety and virtuosity are astonishing, and rewarding" Ivan Hewett (BBC Music Magazine)
“quirky, wry and virtuosically genre-hopping” (The Times)
“It’s rare that an album hits our desks here at So So Gay that turns out to be literally flawless…this album goes beyond simple harmonisation, packing a killer punch with its breadth and depth.” (Sosogay)
"trawls the post-postmodern condition in search of fresh things to say about an eternal subject. Its contents, deal with strong emotions, digging beneath than the self-interested surface of sexual passion to reveal parts of the psyche usually clothed in darkness.” (Sinfini.com)
"...amazing razor-sharp tuning and purity of tone...they held their audience spellbound" (Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph)
Laid Bare: Love Songs is a set of specially commissioned love songs from diverse composers from the worlds of classical, jazz, folk and avant-pop integrated and juxtaposed with a series of covers and adaptations of classic love songs including Rihanna’s 'Only Girl In The World', Erasure's 'A Little Respect' and 'You Don't Love Me (No No No)’ by Dawn Penn.
Commissioned composers include Gavin Bryars, Errollyn Wallen, Anna Meredith, Mica Levi (Micachu and the Shapes), Jim Moray (award-winning folk artist), Phillip Neil Martin and Dai Fujikura. For the covers and adaptations of the classic love songs Juice Vocal Ensemble collaborated with MaJiKer, producer and co-writer of the French avant-pop sensation Camille.
The album also includes remixes by acclaimed producers including Devil Dandy (Quebec based sound designer and composer), THiMK (British composer specialising in film, videogames, modern dance and theatre ), Broken Hours (based in Portland, Oregon and presenting the album with an beautiful ambient remix) and Clay Gold (author, librettist, sound artist, audio engineer and compulsive field recordist).
Laid Bare: 10 Love Songs was commissioned with the financial support of the Arts Council England, the PRS Foundation for New Music (PRSF), and the Vale of Glamorgan Festival.
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I have followed juice’s work with great interest since I first encountered it a few years ago in York. For my piece for their love songs project I decided to set sonnets by Petrarch, who writes about love in a more profound, and a less obvious way, than any poet I know. In fact I wrote two songs - effectively, madrigals. The first treats the voices as a balanced harmonic unit, while the second gives each voice individual, though accompanied, solos, and paying attention, as far as I can, to the individual characteristics of each singer. (Gavin Bryars)
lyrics
Io amai sempre (Petrarch: Rime Sparse 85)
I have always loved and still I love and shall day by day love even more that sweet place where weeping I return many times when Love saddens me;
And I am fixed in loving the time and the hour that removed every love care from around me, and above all her whose lovely face makes me in love with doing well, thanks to her example.
But whoever thought to see them all together, to assail my heart now from this side, now from that, these sweet enemies that I so much love?
Love, with what power today you vanquish me! And, except that hope increases with desire, I would fall dead, where I most desire to live.
credits
from Laid Bare: Love Songs,
released June 2, 2014
Track 3 Io Amai Sempre: Music by Gavin Bryars and lyrics by Francesco Petrarch. Published by Schott Music. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
