Federico Aubele official site | Federico Aubele on Twitter | Federico Aubele on Facebook | Federico Aubele on Soundcloud

Back in the dim wooden floored room. Smoky amber light. Heavy red drapes cover the walls. The old mirror that’s reflected your thousand faces throughout the years, captures your image once again, sitting on the sofa. The deep sound of the bass crawls slowly on the floor, passes between you feet. The soft notes of the guitar and vocals floating on top of it, like black velvet butterflies. Like Absinth.

Patiently crafted over 2 years in his Brooklyn studio, the new Federico Aubele Album, 5, takes you to that room. And you don’t want to leave. You want to dive into that narcotic sway and remain there. Aubele works alone, like a fisherman waiting for the tide, painstakingly, making sure every sound marries the other elements on the track.

“I like working like a painter, by myself, in my atelier. Or like a writer. Technology now a days allows you to be the producer, writer and engineer” says Aubele “It’s an intimate process for me, and I need to respect that intimacy. I can’t work If I have people around, talking. For a lot of people, making music is a social experience, and that’s fine, but it doesn’t work like that for me. The social part for me comes afterwards, when I’m on stage performing with my band, in front of a crowd”.

Aubele’s hunting signature sound, with it’s precise beats, scattered bandoneon samples, nylon string guitar, dark atmospherics and male and female vocal contrast give space this time also to several cinematic tripped out tango infused instrumentals. “I always loved instrumental music. From Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother, to Piazzolla’s album Pulsacion, to Baden Powell’s Afro Sambas to Boards of Canada. It grabs you in a different way than if you have vocals. When there’s no lyrics, a barrier lifts up and the music connects direct with other areas of your subconscious, often with emotions that are hard to put in words”.

The album moves at midnight tempos, with carefully written melodies, both on the songs and on the instrumentals. “The melody is what really catches your attention. It’s like a thread, like a story. I always need the melody. It guides you through the night”. The opening track “Somewhere Else”, features a collaboration by Jazz chanteuse Melody Gardot. Her smoky vocals floating on a slow but heavy beat making a natural contrast with Aubele’s low baritone, sounding like something from another era. Long time collaborator Natalia Clavier also appears on 2 songs, with her dramatic yet crystal clear voice. Mauro Refosco (Atoms for Peace) plays percussion on the slow motion tripped out-latin “Carrousel sin Fin”, and legendary NY jazz saxophonist Ilhan Ersahin plays Blade-Runner-esque lines to an obsessive dub beat on “El Mago”.

As always with Aubele, the combination of elements that would otherwise sound impossible, makes sense, grabbing you and taking you back to that room, somewhere out there in space or in a dream. No one is really sure.

Jesse Harris official site | Jesse Harris on Facebook | Jesse Harris on Twitter | Jesse Harris on Instagram

Originally from New York City, Jesse Harris is a Grammy Award winning songwriter, singer, guitarist and producer of artists from all over the world. He began making records in the mid 90s with Once Blue (EMI Records), his first group and first experience writing for another singer. Since then he has worked with dozens of artists and released 14 albums under his own name. His latest, Music For Chameleons (Sunnyside Records/Warner Music Brazil) came out this year, in support of which he has toured in Brazil, France, Japan, and the US.

In 2003 Jesse received the Grammy Award for Song Of The Year for Norah Jones’ breakout hit “Don’t Know Why,” from her debut album, Come Away With Me, which has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. It includes four other of his compositions: “Shoot The Moon,” “One Flight Down,” “I’ve Got To See You Again,” and “The Long Day Is Over. He plays guitar throughout the recording.

Since then, Jones and Harris have collaborated numerous times. She has been a guest on many of his albums and he appears as guitarist on almost all of hers. He also contributed songwriting to her 2008 release The Fall and produced her version of his song “World Of Trouble” for the Ethan Hawke film The Hottest State. That soundtrack features not only Harris’ score, but new versions of his songs by Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Cat Power, Feist, The Black Keys, M. Ward, Brad Mehldau, Bright Eyes (on whose album “I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning” Jesse also appears as guitarist) and others. Harris and Jones appear together in the Amy Poehler/Paul Rudd comedy They Came Together, performing his song, which he also produced, “It Was The Last Thing On Your Mind.”

Other artists who have recorded Jesse’s songs include Smokey Robinson, George Benson, Pat Metheny, Kandace Springs, and Solomon Burke, on whose album Like A Fire Harris plays guitar and sings backing vocals.

Songwriting collaborations have included Madeleine Peyroux, Lizz Wright, Melody Gardot, Maria Gadu, and Vinicius Cantuaria.

In 2013 Jesse joined John Zorn’s The Song Project, along with Mike Patton, Sofia Rei, and Sean Lennon, writing lyrics for various Zorn compositions and singing them at festivals worldwide with a band featuring Marc Ribot on guitar, John Medeski on keyboards, and Zorn conducting. Two of the group’s albums have been released by Tzadik Records.

Other production credits include albums for Julian Lage, Forro In The Dark, and Petra Haden, who recorded an entire album of his songs, entitled “Seemed Like A Good Idea – Petra Haden Sings Jesse Harris” (Sunnyside Records).

Jesse grew up in New York, earned a BA with a major in English from Cornell University and is an adjunct professor at NYU, where he teaches songwriting. He contributed an essay on songwriting to Volume VI of John Zorn’s Arcana series.