Jon DeRosa - Anchored

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Press release

5...according to our Brian on Fri 23 Sep, 2011.

This NY dwelling man has got a beautiful voice no mistake. It's not often I find male timbres so affecting. He's like a really refined Richard Hawley without the '50s obsession. Reading up a little about Jon DeRosa I understand he became deaf in one ear which affected his attitude to music deeply so he started a project called Aarktica. This explains the bubble-like intimacy his lullaby-inducing tones have perhaps? The songs are like yearning wistful gems that come in to dock somewhere between Death Cab For Cutie, Adrian Crowley, Low and the aforementioned Sheffield hep-cat. The music is semi-orchestral chamber pop with lovely post-rock and heartbreak folk touches, it's so warmly produced it hurts. All four songs are lush and somewhat comforting whilst being achingly fragile and sad. I think fans of the last Emma Pollock record may like bits of this too for some reason, harmonic structure maybe? Smooth but irresistible, give Jon your money.

“At first, Jon DeRosa’s Anchored EP, a quartet of gorgeously layered chamber-pop shanties,seems leagues away from the voluptuous Lovecraftian drift he perfected under his moniker Aarktica. But there are dark spaces here, too, room to brood in the sweet gravel of his voice,in Julia Kent’s penetrating cello lines, and in the quiet violence of the lyrics. With a depth that belies its brief running time, Anchored is so perfect that it literally gives you the chills.” – Ed Park, The Believer
Following is the deception of “Snow Coffin”, a sweet lullaby of indie-pop belying a tale of murder and betrayal in the dark of winter. In his brooding ballad “Ladies in Love,” DeRosa borrows from the poetry of serial killer Charles Schmid, the notorious “Pied Piper of Tucson.” The album closes with a warm lull of vibes and horns in his update of The Chills’“Submarine Bells.” DeRosa is notably backed by Julia Kent on cello and Jon Natchez (Beirut/Yellow Ostrich) on horns and woodwinds. Also featured is the voice of Lorraine Lelis (ex-Mahogany, Aarktica). The album was mixed at Mother West in NYC by Charles Newman (Magnetic Fields, Soko, Gospel Music).
The physical release is limited to 500 handnumbered copies, with printing by Starbage Hands Press (Portland, OR). DeRosa plans to release a second EP in the Spring of 2012.

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