Ela Orleans - Lost

Ela Orleans is a Polish musician, who lives and works in New York.
Lost is her second solo album.
She is a member of “Hassle Hound”, has collaborated with skitter (liam stefani) and many others …
Ela Orleans is a rare pearl, to be kept as a preciously…
she describes her music as movies for ears.
Her tracks are sound assemblages of violin, guitar, piano, sampler,
her collection of records… and her VOICE!
Ela Orleans is a Sorceress, and her unique voice and music bewitches us.
Her melodic short stories, flirt with our memories, experiences and our senses.

REVIEW // CHRONIQUE

ela orleans in conversation with Jeremy Krinsley of impose magazine
Polish-born, Brooklyn-based Ela Orleans recently released her sophomore album Lost, a lush, eclectic and excitingly focused album of home-produced songs that ranged from bossa nova through beach and Afro-pop, into avant collage, that, through its many influences, managed to defy any easy categorization. She spoke with us about her ten-hour recording shifts, growing up behind the Iron Curtain, and her many impressive collaborators.....

ela orleans dans magic (french magazine)
"Ela Orleans décrit ses enregistrements par la formule suivante : “Des films pour les oreilles”. Nombreux sont les musiciens qui obéissent au même désir, celui d'évoquer des images et des mouvements par l'art des sons, mais peu nombreux sont ceux qui parviennent à la hauteur de cette ambition. Sur ce second album solo, la Polonaise installée à New York offre un étourdissant voyage cinématographique dans l'espace et le temps. Tout commence à Brooklyn, où la demoiselle membre du trio Hassle Hound a récemment intégré un prestigieux programme de la Broadcast Music Inc. (Composing For The Screen) pour la création musicale du septième art. À l'aide d'un matériel des plus communs, elle enregistre seule et parfois accompagnée de Wende K. Blass (le guitariste de Burkina Electric) des comptines hypermnésiques sur des poèmes de Robert Walser, Sarah Teasdale, Bruno Schultz et Bill Rivers (dont la chanson Lost a donné son titre au disque). ..............."

ela orleans in dusted magazine
On Lost, Polish-born Ela Orleans sings some songs, assembling them via creaking guitar circles, keyboards, violin and samples. These elements are blended into a soupy haze that suggests 16mm film flicker, sweet candy and lost loves. As a sometimes-member of Hasslehound, Orleans is no stranger to samples and processing, but in her solo work everything is smoothed over by the songcraft. Her weird, slightly timid voice ghosts over everything rather unconventionally, but there’s beauty in hesitation. Moments of sentimentality are undercut by strange hybrids; guest guitarist Wende K. Blass absolutely shreds on "Yes, Of Course" and "Barry Lyndon", getting into traditional Spanish/flamenco forms laid over smoldering embers. The lyrics are assembled from various poems and short stories (penned by herself and others, as well as a Bill Withers cover) but somehow feel like Moe Tucker’s proto-twee moments. It’s a fine style for the music, which is occasionally quite dark, and always busy. I found myself wondering how much the cover art played in my interpretation of the sounds—a blurry, monochrome photograph, with physical damage quite evident. Orleans’s arrangements are lush, yet monochromatic as well; not black and white, necessarily, but a palette that revolves around only one musical hue. It’s a splendid one, though. (Justin Wunsch)

Words from sabrina Lessard ....

Hailing from Poland and currently living in New York, Ela Orleans has graced us with her musical generosity once again. Her latest endeavor "Lost" resembles a short histoire de l'amour,
complete with instrumental soundscapes filling in the gaps between her narrative lyrics.
In her low moan longing and sampled layers, Ela Orleans takes us into a demure,
suave landscape where internalizing is required and desire untouchable except behind closed doors. Harmonies melt into the sweet longing to be wanted and loved. The album flows like a film
(what Orleans describes as "movies for ears"), each track constructing a different scene,
at times through a screaming violin or through electronic dystopic swirls building the perfect background for her revealing lyrics. The joy in listening to Ms.
Orleans comes in her precise editing of verse and melody where she lures you into her dreamy marshmallow jungle while keeping you just on the cusp of euphoria, revealing itself as mature restraint or masochistic benevolence. As she sings, "I am lost without you,"
you become lost in her voice, the antithesis of the verse, delicate and sweet,
as if she is daring you to actually feel the sadness wrapped so eloquently in a simple melody.
On three of the tracks Wende K. Blass offers beautifully dense and spirited guitar riffs over the layers of sampled mayhem and harmonies giving the tracks fullness. The success of this pairing comes as no surprise being that Ms. Orleans has been involved in several musical collaborations such as Hassle Hound the Scotland/NY based trio who brought us heavy sampling and whimsical absurdity.
While maintaining her presence in the experimental/noise New York music scene, Ms. Orleans has participated in the BMI film scoring and mentorship program "Composing for the Screen 2009"
and has been a recipient of the NYFA immigrant mentorship program where she worked with renowned drummer Lukas Ligeti. With the many contributions Ela Orleans continues to make,
there is a thread she weaves throughout the music, traveling in waves of melodic fragility and fierce honesty. As in any great work of art you are left wanting more,
and thankfully for us this is just the beginning.

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