New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Missing Piece Group) After more than two years of traveling the world and working with some of the finest producers and engineers in the industry, Montreal's Leif Vollebekk is set to release his US Debut North Americana via Missing Piece Records on January 28, 2014.
In celebration of the new release, Leif is giving away his recently released EP Borrowed Time, which features covers of songs by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Sigur Ros, The Killers, The Beach Boys, and a track from his forthcoming LP, "Southern United States," via Noisetrade.
https://soundcloud.com/missingpiecegroup/leif-vollebekk-01-southern
This Friday, Vollebekk will perform at New York City's prestigious APAP Conference. He will support the Ethiopian-born, San Francisco-based singer and songwriter Meklit Hadero at Joe's Pub in Manhattan.
Details: Leif Vollebekk and Meklit Hadero
Date: January 10, 2014
Time: 9:00 pm ET
Venue: Joe's Pub
Address: 425 Lafayette Street, New York, New York 10003
Price: $25.00
Site: https://bit.ly/1cTLvEP
Diffuser.fm premiered the album's first single "Southern United States" and said "Vollebekk's search for the 'perfect take,' coupled with his warble - which is covered in just enough rust to make us think of his contemporaries
Ryan Adams and
M. Ward - makes for an authentic take on modern Americana."
Recently, Rolling Stone premiered the album's (almost) 7 minute opus "When The Subway Comes Above The Ground."
The songs on North Americana were always recorded live to tape, documenting the improvisation and space that a live jazz performance would have but using the concision of a pop song. To find these moments, Vollebekk traveled to Montreal's legendary Hotel 2 Tango studio, working with
Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Godspeed You!
Black Emperor) to New York City, working with Tom Gloady (Ryan Adams, Sigur Rós, Patti Smith) to La Frette studios, in La Frette-sur-Seine, France. Vollebekk even tried recording with John Simon, whose credits include
Music from
Big Pink and Songs of Leonard Cohen.
The result is a gorgeous collection of songs that are very much in line with Van Morrison's Astral Weeks or Tim Buckley's work.
The ten songs that comprise North Americana were performed by Vollebekk (vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica, a little rusty fiddle), jazz musicians Hans Bernhard (bass) and
Philippe Melanson (drums), Arcade Fire's
Sarah Neufeld (violin), Joe Grass(pedal steel) and Adam Kinner (tenor sax).
