New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Composer Michaela Polakova and singer/lyricist Natalie Kocab have united as a formidable musical force, transcending genres and cultural differences to construct a genuinely breath-taking album, one, which though shrouded in shadow, is staggeringly beautiful and affecting.
Ellis Island's creeping, lustrous sound is based on Michaela's intricately-weaved piano and string quartet compositions, with Natalie's Patti Smith-esque vocals adding even deeper pools of intrigue and tension. The sound they create is reminiscent to Nick Cave's explorations of the mind and the human spirit: dark and emotionally involving certainly, but also inspiring and defiant.
Michaela was classically trained at Prague's conservatoire, also studying composition at King's College, London. Natalie, a renowned writer of both books and plays in her homeland, and Michaela first met during the making of the album, "Hummingbirds in Iceland", which received rave reviews in Europe. This led to them collaborating "Ellis Island", demonstrating their eve-maturing sound and leading to other notable artists contributing, namely The Verve's guitarist, Nick McCabe and long-time Lou Reed bassist, Fernando Saunders.
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