Newsletter #18

SOPA Newsletter # 18 - March 9, 2008: Agata & Me cd, 9 show on eBay, features, reviews and much more

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Hi!

Welcome to the 18th SOPA Newsletter!

A QUICK OVERVIEW:
- NEW CD: AGATA & ME
- GREAT 'SOPA DELICIOSA' REVIEW BY INFORMATION
- ANOTHER 9 SHOW FOR SALE ON EBAY
- NEW FEATURE: I LIKE THIS WIND RECORDING IN BRUXELLES
- RESIDENT TOURIST IN PODCAST
- SOPA NIGHT #3 ON APRIL 3RD
- DELAY LAMA... DELAYED
- PARCEL SERVICE (MIS)ADVENTURE CONTINUES
- IN DISTRIBUTION: THE CILLE
- BOOKING SOPA ARTISTS
- A FEW RECOMMENDATIONS

NEW CD: AGATA & ME
On March 1st SOPA released the new Agata & Me 8-track EP. We had a nice release party on the day and soon there'll probably be some video online from the show (with three bands). The cd features tracks where traditional songwriting, acoustic instruments and vocal harmonies intertwine with small doses of electronics. A moving listening experience indeed.
Behind the band name you find a duo made up of Agata Foti of Sicily and Emir Pasic of Bosnia (and formerly of the band KURvE). They met up in Aarhus, Denmark, and started doing songs together. During this winter they put together a whole bunch of songs and eight of them have made it onto this cd. There's one mp3 for download at SOPA: http://www.sopa.dk/releases/005.htm
And more songs at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/agataandme
You can watch their little music video for the song "Mirror" here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=1IzV2LKFhao

GREAT 'SOPA DELICIOSA' REVIEW BY INFORMATION
Danish newspaper Information has given "SOPA DELICIOSA" a lovely review calling it "kaleidoscopic" and a "lively get-together", which of course was the whole idea, so that's nice to get confirmed. A few translated bits:
"Alternative would be the right word a few years ago, but that relates mostly to indie rock these days. But let's try and win it back, sit upright in the chair and experience how the musicians on SOPA DELICIOSA smash open that box in their search for an alternative to what has already been said, sung, written, played - and which has lost its gloss."
Marzipan Marzipan is applauded for adding to her string of intimate lo-fi pearls. The Harpies display excentric songwriting that makes the writer think of The Breeders, but where the band at the same time manages brilliantly to move past their rolemodels. Other artists singled out in the review are Frisk Frugt, Machinefabriek, Konrad Korabiewski, Lamburg Tony and Golden Diskó Ship. The latter is "found in her own jittery, short-circuited corner of the room with - but also a bit away from - CocoRosie and Barbara Morgenstern."
"As a whole a rough compilation. In a great way and a bad way, but mostly in a great way. (...) Keeps itself flying for a long way."
Read the whole review in Danish here: http://www.information.dk/154911

ANOTHER 9 SHOW FOR SALE ON EBAY
9 (a.k.a. Marco Brosolo) is selling another one of his "buy it now" 1 cent performances on eBay. Some time today, the 9th of February, it will be auctioned off.
Go to the auction site via the link at http://www.9-9.it

NEW FEATURE: I LIKE THIS WIND RECORDING IN BRUXELLES
In February of 2008 label founder Capt. Daydream spent five days of winter holiday in Brussels visiting I Like This Wind in the cosy neighbourhood of Ixelles. Yeah, Belgium... land of tasty beer, quality chocolate, amazing comic books, real waffles and art nouveau buildings. In short: good things.
The plan was to check out the city a bit, but also to get some recording done. The basic tracks of guitar and vocals for a handful of great songs were recorded. When the last small bits have been recorded and the whole thing mixed we hope to have a nice EP ready later this year.
The basic material for a future music video was also shot. A rather spur of the moment thing which looks like it could turn out really nice once its edited.
Go here for photos and some video: http://www.sopa.dk/features/012.htm

RESIDENT TOURIST ON PODCAST
Mr. Leary - who was featured on the SOPA DELICIOSA compilation - recently asked artists to contribute tracks to an ambient-style podcast they were putting together. Resident Tourist answered the call and thus a new track of his is part of this first Mr. Leary podcast - alongside artists from Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada and Belgium. It can be downloaded for free here:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/81358582b4827a
Info on the artists can be found here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=151629899&blogID=361658900
The track "Stringy" - which was done with an old electric guitar, a small korg synth and a loop pedal - is also in the MySpace player here: http://www.myspace.com/residenttourist

SOPA NIGHT #3 ON APRIL 3RD
On April 3rd SOPA will do its third 'SOPA Night'. This will be at Huset in Magstræde in Copenhagen. As a warm-up to the coming Second Society electronica festival there we put some nice folks on stage for your enjoyment. The event is still in planning phase, but it seems like Delay Lama will be there. Maybe Agata & Me too, but that needs confirming. And then we hope to include some friends of SOPA from elsewhere too. Stay tuned for more info!

DELAY LAMA... DELAYED
Earlier we said we were going to release Delay Lama very soon. Dennis wants to work a bit more on the music to give you the best possible end result. So this little lama is, ironically, delayed (but reportedly not spitting people in the face).

PARCEL SERVICE (MIS)ADVENTURE CONTINUES
Speaking of delays... the 9 cds are still on the way. Seems the parcel service F'ed up again. Amazing. After delivering it to the wrong address it was sent back to Germany. And then back to Denmark again... where it got totally lost. Luckily they seem to be paying for their mistake. A new bunch of 9 cds are on the way to SOPA HQ via regular German postal service. So, a word of advice: don't ever use these guys: http://www.hlg.de

IN DISTRIBUTION: THE CILLE
On two occasions SOPA artists have had the pleasure of performing alongside The Cille. She has just put out an EP so we got a handful for the SOPA shop. Go here for more info: http://www.sopa.dk/releases/D004.htm
Visit her MySpace for sound: http://www.myspace.com/cilletheband
"This Is The Girl" is a lovely and intimate 7-track EP from The Cille. Great vocals combined with piano to both soothing and dramatic effect. And the price is only 40 DKK / 5.50 euro / 8 $.

BOOKING SOPA ARTISTS
If you're interested in putting on shows with any of the SOPA artists - or maybe performing alongside them if you're a musician yourself - then send us an e-mail. Maybe we can make fun things happen! :-)

A FEW RECOMMENDATIONS
A lot of SOPA's friends featured on SOPA DELICIOSA are doing exciting things these days. Here's a few of them:
Konrad Korabiewski has released his "Stateless" album on March 4th. Go have a listen at http://www.myspace.com/korabiewski or visit http://www.korabiewski.com .
MyTwin are playing live for the first time ever on March 13th. This will be at Pakhuset (Studenterhus Aarhus)
in Aarhus. The duo will be supporting Marybell Katastrophy and Artificial Limbs. The show starts at 9 pm sharp. For more info visit www.studenterhusaarhus.dk
You can find the band at MySpace here: www.myspace.com/mytwinbegins
And as we mentioned last time around: Hie Soo Moon is doing one of the very rare live shows with Blob Back Fahrenheit at Stengade 30 on March 29th 2008. For video of the band's last gig in Aarhus go to http://www.blob-back-fahrenheit.com

And before we round of another long newsletter SOPA wishes to send all our love and best wishes to Zelda Panda who very recently became a "mama marzipan"! :-)

Catch ya' later, folks!

Capt. Daydream