New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The 2017 Polaris
Music Prize Short List is here and the "gorgeous, spacious" (The
Boston Globe) Twin Solitude has made the cut. Judged solely on artistic merit, without consideration of genre or record sales, The Polaris
Music Prize awards the artist who creates the Canadian Album of the Year. Leif Vollebekk's critically acclaimed third album (4 stars from Le Droit, Exclaim! and Journal de Montréal) is now one of the ten best records in Canada this year. An independent jury of music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers from across the country determine the Polaris
Music Prize short list, you can view the full list here: https://polarismusicprize.ca/2017-short-list/
Leif Vollebekk is also announcing the start of a Fall North-American tour today with dates on both coasts. The tour launches in Los Angeles on November 30 and will conclude in Philadelphia on December 16, before heading back home for the holidays. More dates will be announced this summer.
This Polaris
Music Prize short list nomination is the latest accolade Twin Solitude has received since its release in February via Secret City Records. The record has been met with praise from critics all over the world including NPR, The Fader, Uncut, Paste Magazine, Rolling Stone France, The Sunday Times Culture,
Boston Globe, The
Globe and Mail and more. In addition, the album has received radio play across
Europe and North America, playlisting on Spotify's New
Music Friday in twelve countries, and it received enough streams to appear on Spotify's Viral Chart week of release in the United States and the United Kingdom. Just recently, the likes of Perez Hilton and
George Ezra praised Leif Vollebekk's latest record on social media.
"A friend told me it was Saturn returns and that may be true. I was aboutto turn thirty and I knew that if I didn't change direction I was going toend up exactly where I was headed." It was time, Leif understood, to make a record with his soul laid out flat - a dark blue and purple album of locked groove and slow pulse. The songs came quickly: fully formed, impossible. "Vancouver Time" took 15 minutes; "Telluride" took less. It was asif the songs were waiting for him. Listen to them in a rental car in cold weather, with the windows all rolled up. Listen to it laying by an openwindow. Listen to it all the way through, alone. "By the time the lastnotes die away, all that's left should be you," Leif explains, "And I'll be somewhere else. And that's Twin Solitude."
PRAISE FOR 'TWIN SOLITUDE':
"Devastatingly beautiful" - NPR Songs We Love
"It's an invitation to travel - to the cobblestones of old Montreal on a bicycle, to the expanse of Montana in the back of a family car, to the Pacific coast in Vancouver, to Iceland, to Paris - and to the darkest corners of your heart." - World Cafe
"The album exudes a meditative joy." - The Village Voice
"It's his best work yet. Take a look at him now." - The
Globe and Mail
"A collection of gorgeous, spacious, piano-led melancholia." - The BostonGlobe
"Vollebekk has eagerly take up [Ryan Adams] mantle. 7/10" - Uncut
"Passionate Broken Social Scene-adjacent melodies wrapped in a casual, jammy atmosphere." - The Fader
"Lovely, soulful and spare." - Brooklyn Vegan
"The Canadian's new track channels
Blue Nile and Anohni to beautiful effect." - Sunday Times Culture
"Rarely simple, Twin Solitude is a striking display of Leif Vollebekk's talent and heart. 8/10" - Exclaim!
4 stars - Le Droit
Listen/Order "Twin Solitude" below:
https://smarturl.it/TwinS_All
Watch the "
Elegy","All Night Sedans" and "Vancouver Time" videos here >>
https://youtu.be/SqGxIbN-DFY
https://youtu.be/qf22lhKxYv0
Tour Dates:
07/15/17 - Vancouver, BC @ Vancouver Folk
Music Festival
07/22/17 - Baie Saint-Paul, QC @ Le Festif!
07/27/17 - Calgary, AB @ Calgary Folk Festival
08/04/17 - Montreal, QC @ Osheaga
Music & Arts Festival
08/30/17 - Halifax, NS - Halifax Urban Folk Festival
09/02/17 - Vlieland, NL @ Into The Great Wide Open Festival
09/07/17 - Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute*
09/08/17 - Newcastle, UK @ Cluny 2*
09/09/17 - Glasgow, UK @ CCA*
09/23/17 - Merrickville, ON @ Ontario Festival of Small Halls
09/29/17 - Wakefield, QC @
Black Sheep Inn
09/30/17 - Sherbrooke, QC @ Boquébière
10/07/17 - Edmonton, AB @ Up + Downtown
Music Festival
11/01/17 - Cologne, DE @ Blue Shell
11/02/17 - Hamburg, DE @ Nochtwache
11/04/17 - Oslo, NO @ Krøsset
11/05/17 - Stockholm, SE @ Obaren
11/06/17 - Gothenburg, SE @ Pustervick
11/07/17 - Copenhagen, DK @
Ideal Bar
11/09/17 - Berlin, DE @ Privatclub
11/10/17 - Munich, DE @ Hauskonzerte
11/11/17 - Zurich, CH @ Bogen F
11/13/17 - Antwerp, BE @ Trix
11/14/17 - Amsterdam, NL @ Bitterzoet
11/15/17 - Nijmegen, NL @ Merleyn
11/16/17 - Luxembourg, LU @ Rotondes
11/18/17 - Brighton, UK @ The Hope and Ruin
11/19/17 - Bristol, UK @ Louisiana
11/21/17 - London, UK @ Moth Club
11/22/17 - Birmingham, UK @ Sunflower Lounge
11/23/17 - Manchester, UK @ Gullivers
11/24/17 - Glasgow, UK @ Garage (Attic Bar)
11/30/017 - Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater
12/01/17 - San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
12/08/17 - Toronto, ON @
Phoenix Concert Theater
12/14/17 - Boston, MA @ Great Scott
12/15/17 - Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade
12/16/17 - Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
*Supporting
Margaret Glaspy
