Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
$8CAD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
***PRE-ORDER shipping will take place 13 Jan, 2015***
WHAT IS A FLEXI-DISC? Developed in communist Russia through the pressing and distribution of (illegal) pop music on old X-Rays (called "Bones"), flexis have since come to embody a variety of products thinner than a normal vinyl record. Flexi-discs are a phonograph record made of a thin, flexible vinyl sheet with a moulded-in spiral stylus groove, designed to be playable on a normal record player.
The EMBASSYLIGHTS release is made up of 4 double sided flexi-discs that are housed between illustrations by Asad Pervaiz (with a cover collage by band member Laura Leif and friends Heather Kai Smith, Kali Urquhart, and Dallin Ursenbach) bound as a book. They are a strictly limited run and will be accompanied by a downloadable copy of the album.
Includes unlimited streaming of EMBASSYLIGHTS
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
EMBASSYLIGHTS is a new collaborative project from Woodpigeon’s Mark Andrew Hamilton alongside fellow Calgary natives Samantha Savage Smith, Clinton St. John, and Laura Leif, paired with two of Reykjavik's most intriguing songsmiths Benni Hemm Hemm and Prins Póló.
The ensemble boasts a talent exchange between six distinct personalities built through a residency exchange retreat in Reykjavik, Iceland, then recorded by Graham Lessard (Kevin Drew’s Darlings, Timber Timbre’s Hot Dreams) at the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts.
EMBASSYLIGHTS provides a creative freedom rarely found within a traditional band setting, with members able to swap instruments and explore without the constraints of pre-designated roles. These creative liberties create a dramatic final result, which shines through on their self-titled debut album. Ranging from the elegiac soundscapes of Bedhead, the rhythmic jitters of Talking Heads, a dash of ’60s girl group pop, and rock songs based on Icelandic folklore, EMBASSYLIGHTS proves the language of music is one that is internationally understood.
EMBASSYLIGHTS will be releasing their album on Tuesday October 28 to coincide with their first official performances at the Iceland Airwaves festival in Reykjavik, Iceland, running November 5-9. The album will be released as an extremely limited run of coil-bound flexi-disc books, available only via the Boompa online store and selected boutique outlets. EMBASSYLIGHTS is also available across digital music platforms internationally.
EMBASSYLIGHTS are:
Svavar Pétur Eysteinsson
Kristján Freyr Halldórsson
Mark Andrew Hamilton
Benedikt H. Hermannsson
Laura Leif
Samantha Savage Smith
Clinton St. John
credits
released January 6, 2015
Banff Centre Recordings Produced by: Graham Lessard
Banff Centre Recording Assistant: Shun Saito
Mixing + Mastering by: Flex Arnason
Front Cover Collage by: Laura Leif, Heather Kai Smith, Kali Urquhart, and Dallin Ursenbach
Original Photography by: Laura Leif and Benedikt Hermannsson
Package Design by: Asad Pervaiz
Project Coordinator: Mark Andrew Hamilton
EMBASSYLIGHTS was written and rehearsed in Reykjavik, Iceland 25-30 January 2013 and recorded in Banff, Canada on 3 February 2013.
Thank you to Kerry Clarke at Festival Hall, Michael Green and the High Performance Rodeo, Matthías Ingimarsson and Bjarni Gaukur Sigurðsson at Kongó, Benjamin Stacey at Okidoki, Robert Calder at Boompa, Grímur Atlason, and Stewart Wheeler at the Canadian Embassy in Reykjavik.
Featuring the collaborative prowess of four of Calgary's finest indie musicians working in tandem with two of Reykjavik's most intriguing up-and-comers, EMBASSYLIGHTS captures a talent exchange unlike any experienced by either city before.
An intimate, desperate examination of a bad breakup that leaves me deep in my feelings every listen, The use of an old "Cowboy Ballad" hits remarkably hard, a clash between the legendary freedom of the old west cowboy in folklore and the feeling of being alone and desolate on a field of endless flatness. wdboldstar
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