Bela Emerson - Hespera

Customer reviews
Press release

Bela Emerson is a pioneering electric cellist who performs passionate, evocative and completely improvised solo pieces using live processing. Her music harnesses many different genres whilst creating noiseworlds which are all her own. Bela’s performances are the stuff of legend: spontaneous, intense, and exhilarating. She builds layers of rhythm and sound from every part of her instrument: sounds are looped, take on lives of their own, bounce off each other...the effect, as anyone who’s heard her will testify, is mesmeric.

Bela emerges from the DIY arena with Hespera, her fourth solo release – the first with BiP_HoP and also the first which comprises self-contained studio tracks of seven minutes and under, recorded by Kris Weston (aka Thrash) & Grantby.

Bela is a prolific and well-travelled performer who tours extensively as a headline act in the UK, Europe, and North America; she’s recently also thrilled crowds at Supersonic, Glastonbury, Bestival, and EXPO, as well as at many worldwide Ladyfests. She has also performed numerous live sessions on Resonance FM, BBC Radio 3, Totally Radio, and in Second Life.
In addition to her solo work, Bela has collaborated extensively with other musicians – live with Tim Exile, Sten Sandell, Rhodri Davies, and Same Actor (to name but a few), and in the studio with Gruenrekorder, Net-Lab, and Strings of Consciousness. She’s also worked with film-makers Tereza Buskova & SchMovies and dancer Anushiye Yarnell, plus created many other live soundtracks to film, theatre, and cabaret. Studio & live sessions include four with Lianne Hall for Radio 1’s John Peel, and recordings with British Sea Power, The LoveGods, and Caramel Jack. She also tours worldwide with percussion company Stomp.

5...according to The Sound Projector.

Emerson never conceals her talent with indulgent echo-chamber play, and beautiful rich melodies are never far away, summoned up by her skilled, gripping fingers. Man, I bet she could open a jar of pickles just by looking at it. On this record, remarkable sonic textures rub up against each other to the extent that I would say the instrument's true voice is unleashed, rather than being buried under a pile of studio effects. In fact, make that several true voices – she makes her instrument speak in tongues.

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