New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Dorado Records/ Miles High Productions) Dorado Records is pleased to announce the release of singer-songwriter
Natalie Walker's new album,
Spark (Dorado). The captivating new disc blends electronic and acoustic textures as a foundation for Walker's richly expressive vocals. Tracks from the album are already picking up spins from the likes of Tiesto, Jason Bentley,
Morgan Page, and
David Waxman.
The Colorado-based artist's prior work has been heard on Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Bones, 90210, Smallville and Entourage, among other TV series, as well as on trendsetting L.A. station KCRW. She wrote and recorded half the album with her longtime collaborators Dan Chen and Nate Greenberg, AKA Brooklyn-based production team Stuhr (Mya, Nicole Atkins, Bebel Gilberto), and half with L.A. writer-producer Ted Bruner (Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Plain White T's). The music occupies a sweet spot between pop and electronica, incorporating Moog, vocoders, cellos and pianos into its buttery, evocative mix.
Walker's first session with Bruner, she says, began with his barraging her with questions - and resulted in one of the most personal songs of her career, "I Found You,". Later came the questing "Sunday Afternoon," which chronicles what she calls her "journey away from conventional religion." Elsewhere on Spark she delves into similarly emotional territory, notably on the delicate first single, "Uptight," and the soulful "Mars," a meditation on life's brevity and the importance of making connections while we still can.
But she also displays her adventurous side, feeling the rush of a hot Brooklyn night in the sensuous, grooving "Cool Kids"; diving headfirst into desire on the swooning "Against the Wall"; and, on "Experimental Love," painting a pulsing, bittersweet portrait of new lovers exploring their chemistry.
Walker's musical odyssey has taken her to an array of locales, including Philadelphia, where she sang in the trip-hop outfit Daughter Darling before collaborating with Stuhr and releasing her solo debut, Urban Angel, in 2006. The album was reissued by Quango in 2008; The Philadelphia Weekly called it "simply marvelous," while A&R Worldwide declared, "An artist like Natalie Walker comes only once in a great while." Urban Angel became a favorite among electronica fans and earned considerable airplay on L.A.'s KCRW; the station's Jason Bentley, currently the host of the station's flagship show, "Morning Becomes Eclectic," proved a strong booster. "Quicksand" was heard on Ugly Betty, while Thievery Corporation remix of the same song appeared in the trailer of Sofia Coppola's film Marie Antoinette.
2008's With You, meanwhile, landed "Circles" on Grey's Anatomy, "Empty Road" on Smallville and "Bye and Bye" on Bones; declared Billboard of the album, "A hypnotic undercurrent lingers beneath her music's drowsy sensuality." Walker released a three-song EP, Live at the Bunker, in 2009. But with Spark, she has hit a new creative plateau.
