press: this girls in love epk
TRANSCRIPT
This perfectly crafted collection features classic and less-familiar love songs plucked from the songbooks of great composers from Burt Bacharach and Henry Mancini to John Lennon and Tom Waits. Focus tracks are Johnny Guitar by Peggy Lee/Victor Young, Tumbleweed by Neil Young and a pared-back version of her hit single from 1989, Wait, the only original song to appear.
‘It was a strange kind of education, singing someone else’s material, putting on their masterful jackets. But songs we remembered fondly turned out to be bombastic when we revisited them, so we’ve made the production of This Girl’s In Love come from the place where we live now artistically. There’s a dream-like quality to our approach to going back in time.’
Gyan ran a successful crowdfunder in 2014 to record This Girl’s in Love. She co-produced it with her partner, musician and arranger Simon Greaves, and they
recorded and mixed it in their studio in Byron Bay. It features a stellar roll call of jazz and classical players, including a string ensemble (Veronique Serret, Cleis Pearce, Bridget Crouch and Tara-Lee Byrne), brass and woodwind (John Hoffman, Nicole Tait, Jeff Mead and Peter Kaldor), drums (Simon Barker), double bass (Thierry Fossemalle) and piano (Alan Park and Tim Sponder).
This Girl’s In Love is Gyan’s first release since Superfragilistically (2010), an album of original songs described by the Sydney Morning Herald as ‘intensely beautiful, emotionally honest, sensitive and seductive,’ and by the Courier Mail as a ‘staggeringly beautiful record.’
This Girl’s In Love is an artist’s odyssey into the musical minds of the singers and composers she has always admired. Between them, Gyan & Simon have conjured up a dreamy, haunting, captivating soundscape.
Singer/songwriter Gyan announces the release of an incandescently gorgeous album, This Girl’s In Love.
Johnny GuitarA haunting ballad of loss and longing
The First Time Ever I Saw Your FaceA sophisticated reappraisal of a classic torch song
Jealous GuyInstantly recognisable tribute to the great John Lennon
Moon RiverA gorgeous moment of song, gentle, whimsical and hummable
What’ll I DoAn elegant lament to love-dreams that have ended
AlfieWe’re in a 1960s cocktail lounge hearing this dramatic ballad for the first time
TumbleweedAn ethereal and lilting song about hope and coming home
The Man with the Child in his EyesA song that plays out like a barely remembered, subterranean dream
Un Homme et Une FemmeA sensuous, summer number, as carefree as cruising in the late afternoon
Oh, My LoveSimple as a chant, this luminous tune describes the transformative power of being in love
WaitGyan’s voice dips and soars in this evocative rendition of her classic track
I’m Still HereA late-night, red wine, rueful ballad about love, tinged with defiance
The songs
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Listen to the songs
Johnny GuitarWHY THIS SONG?‘I stumbled upon this song by composer Victor Young in my YouTube feed. It was Peggy Lee singing in the long-lost film Johnny Guitar. It is a Joan Crawford pulp Western, in which she plays a tough saloon owner called Vienna who stands up to a lynch mob. My head expanded!’
OUR TAKE‘Peggy’s version was done in one take with a full orchestra. We have produced ours in a more intimate, hushed tone. We’ve built the track with a string quartet, highlighting the unusual harmonic structure and soaring, theramin-like passages. All the charts on the album owe something to Victor Young, the arranger for this song.
WHY THIS SONG?‘I’ve been trying to cover Neil Young, but he doesn’t translate to a girl’s voice. This is a new song from him that came up late in the day. It was unusual to see him sing it with fragility and sensitivity, no guitar and accompanied by orchestra. I had to have a go!’
OUR TAKE‘We used background vocals rather than orchestration for that psychedelic wash of sound. The arrangement falls somewhere between the gush of Walt Disney and the gritty layers of Mercury Rev. There might be some Strawberry Fields in there too! There is an innocence about Neil Young’s writing that we wanted to evoke.’
Tumbleweed
Focus tracks
WaitWHY THIS SONG?‘We wanted to reinterpret the song from an acoustic base rather than the synth and sax abomination from the 1980s. It was a pleasure to rework it as it was conceived. It’s a photograph of where we are now.’
OUR TAKE‘We ditched the middle 8. Don’t bore us - get to the chorus! The drums are now soft and relaxed and the industrial tempo has gone.’
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