OndaDrops Vol. 1:

Talking about music through music itself. This is the basic idea behind OndaDrops, OndaRock's new project involving the release of a series of compilations featuring exclusive tracks (unreleased material, covers or alternative versions) available as free downloads. Countless little drops of music, then, to be "touched by hand" and collected as genuine "rarities", through which to discover new artists or rediscover familiar ones in exclusive guises.

The first volume of OndaDrops is dedicated to acoustic folk, focusing in particular on the figure of the songwriter. Twenty-six names are involved, twenty-six artists from the international scene who, through their music, have allowed us to sketch out the many facets of a reality that, appearances aside, turns out to be quite heterogeneous: delicate acoustic passages alternate with exuberant instrumental orchestrations, ballads redolent of country sit alongside compositions with a strong evocative power, shading off into folktronic experiments, while fresh folk-pop sketches give way to moments of more fragile introspection. This double collection, titled "Do You Know The Way To Blue?", thus takes its place along the long path of folk music, a path "toward the blue" that, forty years on, is more alive and dynamic than ever, and that, thanks to the sensibility of artists like those who took part in making "Do You Know The Way To Blue?", is still able to deliver intense emotions.

CD1

Foxtrot Empire

Foxtrot Empire is the new project by Nicolai Grey, and the first, right from its name, to lean more towards pop, thanks to less elaborate and more direct arrangements. In this new venture, he's joined by his friend and multi-instrumentalist Louis Pontvianne, who, according to Grey himself, is capable of playing virtually any instrument with the same skill and expertise. "Rock Bottom (Is My Best Friend)" is one of the first tracks recorded by Foxtrot Empire, laid down by the duo in just a few hours, with Nicolai humming the melody and Louis instantly translating it into music. The song, which will feature on Foxtrot Empire's debut, is apparently about the end of all things.

Foxtrot Empire – Rock Bottom (Is My Best Friend)

Simon Llewelyn Evans

Picture a walk in the park on a sunny Sunday. The caress of grass, the rustle of trees. A song blooming, almost intangible. That's how "Candle Song" came to be, a light breath of breeze penned by Australian songwriter Simon Llewelyn Evans, who made his debut in 2008 with the album "Draw Mountains There". A guitar as bare as a stem, over which the words unfold, carried by a voice rich with depth. But even a songwriter's trade has its drawbacks: what happens, for instance, if your dog suddenly decides to bolt across the whole park just as you're finishing writing your song? And if that dog also happens to have an unhealthy passion for Asian ladies, things are bound to get complicated... Luckily, Evans isn't one to let inspiration slip away easily: once he'd rounded up his rebellious dog, his first concern was to get home and record the track. "I love this song", he declares without hesitation. It's hard not to agree with him.

Simon Llewelyn Evans – Candle Song

Barzin

One of the most sincere and inspired intimist songwriters of the latest generation, Canadian Barzin Hosseini has established his slow-burning songwriting across three albums of delicate emotional depth and a careful pursuit of muffled, intimate soundscapes. From his early home-recorded forays into electronics to the crystalline ballads of his latest "Notes To An Absent Lover", Barzin has always shaped his songs and arrangements to faithfully mirror his inner world which, as in "It's Come To This" (recorded and mixed by Nick Zubeck), leads him to sing of absence and memory, entrusting music with the role of chosen vehicle for his pronounced sensitivity, human before it is artistic: “You slip your hand/ beneath her dress/ The summer moon is soft/ 3am in a dark alleyway/ This is as close/ as you’re gonna get to God/ Yeah, it’s come to this /Is this really what you sought?/ Yeah, it’s come to this/ And all you can do/ is go and put it in a song/ What a beautiful mess/that you made for yourself/ Stumble home through/ crooked streets/ No one around but/ your thoughts/ The smell of her/ still on your fingers/ And you wonder/ if you should put that in your song/ Yeah, it’s come to this/ Is this really what you sought?/ Yeah, it’s come to this/ Here is your life in art/ Go and put that/ in your songs”.

Barzin – It's Come To This

Norabelle

The Dublin duo Norabelle, made up of Ken Clarke and Shane O'Hanrahan, have recorded a four-track EP titled "Come The Bluest Dawn", released in a limited edition by the ever-attentive Static Caravan. Alongside vocal harmonies reminiscent of the Sixties and the kind of guitar interplay so dear to folk music of every era, there's often room for a mournful, unassuming piano. Their influences are countless, ranging from Red House Painters to Iron & Wine, from the more reflective side of Wilco all the way to Will Oldham and Woody Guthrie. The track featured here is a piano ballad rich in atmosphere, recorded live at one of their Dublin shows. 2010 will most likely see their debut full-length.

Norabelle – Sleeping

Hezekiah Jones with Pepe Jones

On the surface it presents itself as a kind of "big Jones family", but Hezekiah Jones is actually the solo project of Raphael Cutrufello, a songwriter based in Philadelphia. A faint touch of eclecticism runs through Cutrufello's music, and rich melodies strummed with a "light heart" pair with a direct, essential approach, giving the songs a fresh immediacy, as can be appreciated on the 2006 debut "Hezekiah Says You're A-Ok". A number of musicians orbit around Raphael-Hezekiah, each identified by a nickname followed by the shared surname Jones. Such is the case, for instance, of bassist Phil D'Agostino, rechristened Pepe Jones, who joins the "Jones collective" live, playing bass, singing saw, banjo, mandolin and clarinet. D'Agostino shares the stage with Raphael on "Drug Buddy", an acoustic cover of the Lemonheads' "My Drug Buddy", recorded and mixed by John Krohn (ex-Frontier Ruckus).

Hezekiah Jones with Pepe Jones – Drug Buddy

Brian Wheat & Groggy Darlin'

The solitary life is lazy and absent-minded. It idles on barely-touched guitar strings, rising slowly like a puff of upright bass and brushed drums. Brian Wheat (nothing to do with the Tesla bassist of the same name...) has dedicated his new "Lonely Life" to it, a preview taken from the second album by the Buffalo-based songwriter, expected in early 2010. By day, Wheat works as a science teacher, but his wanderings around the world (from America to Tasmania, via old Europe) have taught him to "become part of the vast unknown that lies just beyond the edges of our town". Always backed by his Groggy Darlin', Wheat proves he can live up to the lesson of the most pastoral side of Neil Young, weaving a tapestry of dust and nostalgia with his delicate, intense voice. As on his first record, "Where You Have Been", dating back to 2007 by now, a reticent surface conceals precious details: "A bit of grey and shadow, a bit of country roads and golden hayfields", as he himself likes to describe his own music.

Brian Wheat & Groggy Darlin' – Lonely Life

Moomaw

The son of a folk musician, Nathan Moomaw seems to have held on to the same playful approach to music he had as a child, when he'd run wild like a little cowboy through the woods and farmland of Massachusetts. So guitar, ukulele, mandolin, dulcimer, accordion, singing saw, Rhodes, various percussion and plenty of "other things that make noise" become playmates for colorful patchworks steeped in carefree folk. Almost two years after the release of "26", we find Moomaw with a more mature voice on a track from his new album, due out in 2010 and titled "Drip Drop". "Pirate Of This Bottled Ship" is a long ballad that Moomaw himself says he wrote after moving to San Francisco and deciding to give up his "career" as a cowboy for the (more lucrative?) one of pirate. Listening to this track, though, it's clear that Moomaw is still a cowboy at heart, after all.

Moomaw – Pirate Of This Bottled Ship

Oweihops

Michael Metiver, from Massachusetts, has released two albums and an Ep under the impenetrable alias Oweihops, making a name for himself mainly through word of mouth and online buzz among alt-country enthusiasts. Oweihops' music feels a bit out of time: as if it had always been there, warm, reassuring and honest. With "Viburnum", his first professionally produced work, backed by an actual band, he managed to give full shape to his traditional ballads, steeped in love for nature and empathy. "Jacks, Kings & Queens" is an out-take from the "Viburnum" sessions, where Michael, armed with nothing but voice and guitar, conjures an intimate, close-knit atmosphere, making it feel almost as though we're sitting with him around a campfire in the endless conifer forests of New England.

Oweihops – Jacks, Kings & Queens

Ilya E. Monosov

An eclectic visual experimenter, capable of arranging sound like pictorial shapes or three-dimensional structures, the Russian-American Ilya E. Monosov is an artist able to range from the outer boundary of sonic experimentation to the intimacy of acoustic compositions, alternating strong instrumental expressiveness with the depth of moments of silence. As already heard on "Seven Lucky Plays…", the album released in 2008 under the aegis of Greg Weeks, a purely "acoustic" approach also runs through "Improvisation Based Upon Songs In Preparation", an improvisation inspired by some of the tracks that will appear on Monosov's new record, due out in 2010, and originally created for streaming on a Dutch radio station (dwars.radio6.nl). The lyrics, written almost entirely by Monosov, include a passage from C. Baudelaire's "Music", which on the album will introduce the ballad titled "The Sailor Man".

Ilya E. Monosov – Improvisation Based Upon Songs In Preparation

Ant

Drummer and founding member, alongside Darren Hayman and John Morrison, of the never-forgotten Hefner, the band that breathed new life into London's (indie)rock folk scene at the turn of the millennium, Anthony Harding, aka Ant, has been living in Sweden for some time now, and allows himself the luxury of recording exactly what he likes, indifferent to trends and the lure of the market. His solo career (if it can be called that), despite its relaxed, almost amateurish approach, has, thanks to numerous releases on cult labels such as Fortune & Glory, Italy's Homesleep and Spain's Acuarela, established him as a sincere and authoritative voice in British indie-pop. "The Birds Sing Goodnight To You And Me" is the title of the new album Ant is writing and recording at a leisurely pace at his home in Malmö, expected to see the light of day in 2010. The track featured here is a homemade demo from these sessions.

Ant – Kisses On A Plate (Demo)

Drew Piston

"Every time I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, it's an unexpected surprise, and not always a pleasant one". There's a monster hidden inside each of us: when we catch its shadow, a strange dizziness takes hold of our gaze. Drew Piston contemplates the reflection of his own demons with a hoarse, Waits-like smile on his lips. Rain streams down the windows of his old San Francisco apartment: you can hear it pattering in the background as the music spreads through the cramped walls. CJ Blea provides the sting of a guitar solo, while Adam Del Rio handles everything else. And the dark air turns to smoke, wounds and dreams. After the promising self-titled debut in 2008, Piston has kept himself busy "building songs made of vices and stormy clouds, or hibernating under a blanket of scotch and omelettes". He has now moved to the outskirts of Seattle and is preparing to release a new Ep. "Monster" suggests that, once again, these will be songs to hold close to your heart in the dead of night.

Drew Piston – Monster

John Craigie

What does it mean to be a storyteller these days? Californian John Craigie must know a thing or two about it, having spent years crisscrossing America with his brightly-painted acoustic guitar, in a state of perpetual migration, telling his stories to a different audience every night. Deeply influenced by the American roots tradition, Craigie's music can push into driving rock'n'roll and bluegrass territory, as it did on the exhilarating "A Picnic On The 405", or drift into velvety acoustic ballads, which formed the main thread of the following "Soft Hail". "28 (Alt. Version)" is an alternate take of a track from Craigie's new record, "Montana Tale", released just a few weeks ago. This version of "28", starker than the one on the album, rests on nothing but guitar, harmonica and voice.

John Craigie – 28 (Alt. Version)

Things In Herds

A hushed voice resting on subdued melodies, spare and elegant songwriting, a gentle instrumental backdrop where every instrument merely suggests, hints, sketches: these are the ingredients of the music of Pete Lush, the English songwriter behind the Things In Herds project. Miss Ping, the other half of the Brighton duo, backs Lush with her backing vocals, softening the melancholy atmosphere of the songs. Satellite members of the Fence collective (which boasts the pedigree of names like James Yorkston or King Creosote), Things In Herds released their fourth album "Nothing Is Lost" in 2007, and are now working on a new record, presumably due in 2010. "Any Wonder" belongs to a set of songs written by Lush over the past twelve months, with the initial intention of steering clear of overly melancholy tones and moving beyond solo acoustic guitar toward less bare-bones sounds. This track, built around the voice-and-guitar pairing, reveals "the failure of Pete's creative plans", as he himself jokingly admits.

Things In Herds – Any Wonder

CD2

A Singer Of Songs

“Quando incontrerò il mio Creatore e Lui mi interrogherà/ Non abbasserò la testa, mi solleverò forte e orgoglioso / E dirò: «Ero un cantante, Signore, un cantante di canzoni»”. So announced Johnny Cash, quoting on "Unearthed" the lyrics of Tim O'Connell's "A Singer Of Songs". Lieven Scheerlinck, a songwriter based in Barcelona, drew directly on that simple, proud manifesto when choosing his moniker. His mission is to write and record songs by surrendering to the urgency of the moment, "without too much time to wonder whether the words are too personal or the melodies too honest". "Road To Nowhere" is cut from the same cloth: voice and guitar steeped in melancholy, and a heart laid bare. On his new record, "Old Happiness" (out just these days), the song is entrusted to the velvety voice of New Zealand songwriter Tiny Ruins. Scheerlinck instead wanted to offer us the very first demo of the song, recorded alone during a sleepless night, half-whispered so as not to wake the neighbours.

A Singer Of Songs – Road To Nowhere (Demo)

Tex La Homa

An eclectic artist from Bournemouth, Matt Shaw has never shied away from experimental forays, such as those undertaken alongside Nick Grey in the project 230 Divisadero. Over his ten years of activity, however, he has devoted the bulk of his output to the alter ego Tex La Homa, under which he has released four albums full of compositional twists and quirks that moved beyond the classic voice-and-guitar setup to embrace electro-pop and certain shadowy, lo-fi soundscapes. Discovering himself as a singer-songwriter midway through his career, Shaw has managed to channel a crepuscular sensibility into clear, graceful songs, softened by touches of piano or still shot through with hazy traces of his electronic past. The melodic flair and airy arrangements on display in his latest "Little Flashes Of Sunlight On A Cold Dark Sea" return intact on "41 Volumes", a track that flirts with pop in dreamy tones and a pleasantly spring-like mood.

Tex La Homa – 41 Volumes

Dog Is Blue

A splash of colour on the canvas. A visionary, cartoonish line. A few brushstrokes to finish the outlines. Paul Watson loves to paint: he always paints a dog's skull, in wild, vivid hues, different every time. It's the image on the cover of his debut album as Dog Is Blue, "...Makes Ghost Noises", the record that brought him attention last year. His music has the same colours and the same irony, like the chime of a miniature carousel. "Hot Air Balloons (And Submarines)" plays with a light touch of wonky keyboards and guitars, while the Toronto songwriter is, as ever, answered by the voice of Laura Heaney. "We've played it live recently, but usually a bit slower and with some loops. I thought it would be fun to try it slightly faster and jam around it a little." Hot air balloons and submarines floating between ocean and sky, suspended among the notes of a dream: the ideal subject for Watson's next drawing…

Dog Is Blue – Hot Air Balloons (And Submarines)

Steve Adey

"I hate rushing things at their best moments, sometimes I wish they were even slower", Steve Adey said in an interview given to OndaRock a couple of years ago. It's been since 2006 that his debut, "All Things Real", has been waiting for a follow-up. His approach to music, after all, has always been a perfect ode to slowness, one in which the space between the notes can become the most important part. With "These Resurrections", the Edinburgh songwriter offers a taste of his most rarefied writing: a deep cello line, a brief hymn thick with spleen, a piano with impressionistic shadings. The sound of the room where the track was recorded, in front of a sparse audience, becomes an integral part of the music. The long gestation now seems almost over: the new album should finally see the light of day in 2010. And there's more material too, "austere, minimalist and mostly instrumental", which could make its way into a separate EP. A reward for those who knew how to wait.

Steve Adey – These Resurrections

Dakota Suite

“A building surrounded by fire”. That's how Chris Hooson, the mastermind behind Dakota Suite, describes himself. The Leeds band has released extraordinary and poignant albums such as “Signal Hill”, “Morning Lake Forever” and “This River Only Brings Poison”. Their leader's personal restlessness goes hand in hand with his thirst for experimentation and his desire to convey his own feelings, fears and personal (and universal) weaknesses to the listener. Driven by this urge, Hooson and his band have, in recent years, collaborated with an artist like David Darling and are now preparing to release a record with Emanuele Errante. Amid instrumental langour and gentle, folk-tinged ballads, Hooson never forgets, however, his absolute and all-consuming passion for Everton F.C.. The track presented here, recorded with longtime collaborator David Buxton on drums, Chris Donohue on double bass, and Hooson's beloved wife Johanna Hooson on clarinet, is a very recent recording, and it's still not certain whether it will feature on one of Dakota Suite's upcoming projects.

Dakota Suite – Without You

Leonard Mynx

Leonard Mynx grew up half a mile from Mark Twain's grave. And, just like the legendary American writer, he possesses a remarkable gift for telling stories, lives, people. His music is deeply steeped in the history of American music, just as his stories tell the story of America as a whole. Produced in Portland by that little-known folk-rock genius who goes by the name of Adam Selzer, Leonard's debut, “Vesper”, is a work of remarkable restraint and lightness, without a single note out of place, an overly baroque arrangement, or an out-of-focus instrument, and it reveals a mature artist with solid songwriting skills. His next album, which should be ready by now, will be titled “Son Of The Famous So And So”, and “Losing Wind”, with its vaguely sixties sound, is a thoroughly enjoyable preview of it.

Leonard Mynx – Losing Wind

Rivulets

Over the past ten years, Rivulets has been the artistic vehicle of Nathan Amundson, an artist from Duluth who was discovered and introduced to music production by his more famous fellow townsman Alan Sparhawk. In all likelihood, the excerpt of “Everybody's On The Run” presented here will be the last track to appear under this alias, which Amundson has recently announced he intends to retire in favor of his own given name. Across the three albums released as Rivulets, Amundson has developed a distinctive formula capable of blending intimate singer-songwriter fare with slow-core deceleration, brushing on one hand against the caressing, aching warmth of a Mark Kozelek, and on the other against dreamlike cadences poised between Low and Codeine, thereby heightening the dark minimalism of songs perpetually suspended between emotional fragility and latent intensity. All these elements, refined through collaborations with artists such as Jessica Bailiff and Chris Brokaw and summed up in his latest release “You Are My Home”, can be found distilled in this brief live excerpt of “Everybody's On The Run”.

Rivulets – Everybody’s On The Run (Live)

Nicolai Riccardo Grey

Nicolai Riccardo Moldoveanu Grey is a young musician who splits his time between Munich and Montreal. He claims to have been making “depressive music” since 2002. Across his various musical projects (Nick Grey, 230 Divisadero, 48 Cameras, Foxtrot Empire) he has collaborated with artists of the caliber of Martyn Bates, Charlemagne Palestine, Jessica Constable and Matt Shaw (aka Tex La Homa). Unlike many of the musicians featured here, Nicolai only started playing guitar a few months ago and, despite readily admitting his own limitations, is still absorbed in studying the instrument and in various experiments. He explains that “My Tropic Land” is the first song “for guitar” he has composed and played. Perhaps that's why he nonetheless decided to bury the sound under arrangements and effects that make it barely recognizable. The bass on the track is played by his friend and collaborator Louis Pontvianne.

Nicolai Riccardo Grey – My Tropic Land

Radical Face

Behind the moniker Radical Face lies Ben Cooper, a songwriter from Jacksonville, Florida, better known as one half of Electric President: having temporarily set aside the more overtly electronic side of the Presidents, in this solo project Cooper leans toward a melange of folk and indie-tronica, in which the hypnotic melodies of the songs are filtered through a lush production. Two years after the release of “Ghost”, his debut released on Morr, Cooper is currently working on a set of three albums, titled “The Family Tree”, due to arrive sometime between 2010 and 2011. “Home” is a track in three movements that took shape during the 2009 Christmas holidays, and it aligns well with the rounded instrumental orchestrations and intense evocative power of the American singer-songwriter's debut.

Radical Face – Home

The Boy Hardy

Christian Silva was the nom de plume adopted by Christian Hardy for his solo work. A singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, he has collaborated with successful artists such as Loney Dear and Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls. His first album, released in 2008, “Onward!”, marked by an orchestral pop sound and Christian's striking voice, was warmly received by critics across the Channel. Real success, however, came almost unexpectedly when, having temporarily set aside his solo career, he became a mainstay, alongside Nick Hemmings, of Leisure Society, a fast-rising English band. Between touring with them, a collaboration with the intriguing The Climbers, and numerous other commitments, the eclectic Christian has nonetheless found the time to write a new solo album, which he is currently rehearsing and recording. Having decided to retire his own alias, he has, with OndaRock's “complicity”, chosen to adopt the name The Boy Hardy and unveil a first demo, “Don't Get Swept Away”, with its delightful pop flavor strongly reminiscent of the Leisure Society sound.

The Boy Hardy – Don’t Get Swept Away

The Brendan Hines & Co., Inc.

If truth and lies are the essential raw material for any self-respecting songwriter, Brendan Hines must have come to know them well since becoming one of the leads of the popular TV series “Lie To Me”: playing Eli Loker, Hines stars alongside a heavyweight of Tim Roth's caliber in the challenge of exposing even the most hardened liars through the study of facial expressions and body language. In the meantime, however, the thirty-three-year-old actor/singer-songwriter hasn't abandoned his guitar, and under the tongue-in-cheek banner “The Brendan Hines & Co., Inc.”, he's preparing to follow up his debut record, “Good For You Know Who”, released in 2008. The delicate country-folk waltz “The Butcher's Son”, recorded live at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles last October, is the first preview of the new songs he's working on, featuring Kristen Toedtman's soft harmony vocals and Fil Krohnengold on vocals and piano.

The Brendan Hines & Co., Inc. – The Butcher’s Son

The Mostar Diving Club

Exploring every nuance of folk-pop with the curious, wonder-filled eyes of a child: this seems to be the driving force behind the pen of Damian Katkhuda, a London-based singer-songwriter of Bosnian descent, already known as the leader of Obi and of the duo bearing his surname. The music of The Mostar Diving Club, Katkhuda's first solo project, is built on simple melodies and graceful arrangements that, even when the instrumental architecture becomes more elaborate, lend the songs a real lightness of touch, as beautifully shown by the fresh atmospheres, tinged with a hint of melancholy, of the debut “Don Your Suit Of Lights“. “Just Can’t Get Enough” is an acoustic guitar-and-voice cover of the Depeche Mode song of the same name, recorded by Damian at home in a single take – which gives the track a pleasing sense of immediacy.

The Mostar Diving Club – Just Can’t Get Enough

Pickering Pick

Twelve years spent writing music. Twelve years in which Sam Pickering Pick has produced no fewer than eight releases, eight precious “virtual” collections (since they're only available digitally) in which the California-based singer-songwriter, originally from Cheltenham, England, has gathered his acoustic compositions. The common thread running through Pickering Pick's music is a rigorously lo-fi approach, and Sam's songwriting is marked by an extreme directness, further highlighted by sparse instrumentation (guitar, harmonica, piano) and a crystal-clear production. Whether it's the fragile, desolate atmospheres of “The Pacific Ocean” or the lighter ones of the follow-up “A Twitch Upon The Thread”, Pickering Pick's music never fails to deliver genuine emotion. “Deliver” is in fact a rather fitting word here, since Pickering Pick's albums are available as free downloads on his RYM page. “The Silence” is a delicate ballad written by Sam in the summer of 2009, after his new recording studio had been completed. The melancholy of the guitar is amplified by scattered piano notes, and Sam's voice, foretelling the silence, also marks the end of this double compilation.

Pickering Pick – The Silence

OndaDrops Vol. 1: Do you know the way to blue?

Cd1: download

Cd2: download

All the tracks featured in OndaDrops have been made available by the artists for free download. OndaRock makes no claim of ownership over these tracks, which remain the exclusive property of their respective copyright holders, artists, record labels and publishing companies.

Alessandra, Francesco, Gabriele and Raffaello would like to thank the artists, the labels and everyone without whose support this collection could never have seen the light of day. Special thanks to Valeria Campana for her “technical” support.

All songs included in OndaDrops are provided by artists and intended for free download. OndaRock makes no claims of ownership to any of the songs, that are sole property of their copyrights, artists, record labels and publishing companies.

Alessandra, Francesco, Gabriele and Raffaello would like to thank the artists, the labels and everyone whose support made this compilation possible. A special thanks goes to Valeria Campana for her “technical” support.

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