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Like a submarine on a sexy secret mission, noir-rock legends Elysian
Fields have always traveled below the radar. Jennifer Charles, the beautiful
face of Elysian FIelds, combines one of the most smooth and velvety voices in
music with the sharpest lyrical and artistic sensibility. Her writing
partner, Oren Bloedow, is an original and uncommonly musical guitarist. Their
uncompromising personal vision influenced countless bands, and they
have cultivated a fan-base of the globe's cultural cognoscenti -passionate
and open-minded souls, late greats Joey Ramone and Jeff Buckley counted
among
them.
In their decade together, Elysian Fields have recorded seven CDs,
including one of interpretations of Sephardic music and one fabled 'lost' CD
produced by Steve Albini, which was denied release and led to the
band's early departure from the major label scene and subsequent enshrinement
as cult figures in the US, where they rarely play. Members of this fanatic
cult community meet on the message board at elysianmusic.com, and at
the fansite blackacres.net, as well as on the brand-new elysianfieldsnyc
page at myspace.com.
Elysian Fields had a banner year in Europe in 2004, releasing the
critically acclaimed album Dreams That Breathe Your Name on Play It
Again Sam records, and supporting it with several extensive tours, playing to
packed houses in Paris, Brussels, Berlin, and many other cities from
Holland to Portugal. An album of duets between EF siren Jennifer
Charles and French Star Jean-Louis Murat also debuted in the French top 20 last
summer and was nominated for the Victoires de Musique, the Grammy
Awards of France. 2004 was also the year of Jennifer's featured
appearance as singer and writing collaborator on Chris (Tweaker/NIN) Vrenna's highly
regarded 2Am Wakeup Call.
Elysian Fields have worked closely with producer/impressario Hal
Willner on a variety of projects, the most recent of which, the Rose and the
Briar concert in NYC, led to guitarist/composer Oren Bloedow being chosen by
longtime Rolling Stone contributor Greil Marcus as 2004's Artist of the
Year. Mainstays of the thriving downtown New York scene, they have
worked with such notables as John Zorn, (contributing standout tracks to
several of his compilations), Marc Ribot, and an endless list of the
community's finest musicians. Outside of the band, Jennifer and Oren have been
closely involved with some phenomenal acts like Dan the Automator's
Lovage project, featuring Jennifer and Mike Patton, and in Oren's case with
Me'shell Ndegeocello and Chocolate Genius, among others too numerous to
name. The Elysian Fields band membership over these years has been a
tight knit family of Downtown's most sensitive and creative players,
including all of the members of Jeff Buckley's Grace- era band, and a
few of the most respected young jazz musicians in town. Visual artists with
whom they have collaborated include Whitney Biennial painter Fred
Tomaselli, photographers Mark Seliger, Michael Ackerman and JK Potter,
as well as such filmmakers as Canada's award winning director
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