About: Elizaveta
Ekizaveta is a musical alchemist.
“Alchemy is fantastical chemistry,” she
explains. “You throw seemingly disparate elements in a pot. If you do it
correctly, they’re transmuted and something else takes form. I take opera,
electronic beats, piano hooks and a pop melody and create a song. The
ingredients work in concert and the end product becomes an emotional auditory
experience.” Elizaveta hesitates, then adds: “It’s 19th Century
meets the 21st“.
And this fusion works, for there is nothing
disingenuous about Elizaveta’s tapestry of influences ranging from Bach to
Bjork, which have produced a sound extraordinarily moving and unique. Her debut
album ‘Beatrix
Runs’ (out on Universal Republic January 24,
2012) is both a compelling and thoughtful modern opera-meets-pop masterpiece
and a collection of original songs that could possibly change the landscape of
popular music upon their release. And it’s definitely an ambitious endeavor at
which the multi-instrumentalist chanteuse and composer definitely succeeds, as
she mixes up a heady brew of pop, opera, classical and soul.
“I love pop music and how it gives me an
opportunity to tell a story in four minutes or less. However, my true passion
lies in being able to combine elements and eras you wouldn’t normally expect to
hear together, like jazz-pop verses and unapologetically operatic choruses, for
example. When I succeed, it is not unlike transmuting basic metal into gold,
except in this case, gold represents pure emotion.”
To perfect the mastery of her Art, the
“alchemist” had traveled halfway across the planet and back. Born in New York
City, Elizaveta spent eight mere months there, before her interpreter parents
moved back to Moscow, Russia. She grew up in the huge metropolis, playing her
grandparents’ piano and commenced writing poems and songs at the age of five.
Her formal musical training started shortly thereafter, and included special
public performances, where the prodigy improvised songs and original pieces
on-stage.
As she grew older, Elizaveta’s tastes
spanned everything from Russian composers & Bach to Nina Simone, Queen and
Elton John. As a teen, she left Russia for Europe on a scholarship, and
continued her training there, but it wasn’t until she pursued her music studies
at the Prague Academy of Music that she discovered her voice may be of operatic
proportions.
” I had no idea,” she shrugs, in
recollection of that time; “I had always been singing, but I never thought that
I could sing opera – but suddenly there I was, performing arias”.
Looking for a way to further her studies,
Elizaveta embarked on a journey to Los Angeles in order to study music
composition & opera performance at the University of Southern California.
She never stopped writing songs, though, and it wasn’t long before she and her
professors discovered that her true bliss was found in writing and performing
original material, rather than interpreting someone else’s.
Upon graduating USC with a degree in opera,
she began independently releasing her own music dropping two EPs in 2007, Breakfast with Chopin and Like
Water.
Soon after the success of these releases,
the songstress entered the studio with the reputable multi-Grammy award winner
and producer Greg Wells [Adele, Rufus Wainwright, Katy Perry, Elton John] who
helped Elizaveta hone her “opera-pop” vision and style. The two began recording
her 2012 major label debut ‘Beatrix Runs’ (out on iTunes and Amazon.com), which
features the iTunes Song Of The Week single ‘Dreamer’.
The two spent months in Wells’ Los Angeles
studio creating a whole new musical world for Elizaveta to reside in. Built
upon their mutual love of classical music, opera and modern sounds, their
collaboration produced gems such as “Dreamer”,
that opens the record and entices the listener with its chorally-inspired vocal
arrangements and electronic beats, joined by an ostinato piano hook.
Elizaveta’s voice flutters into a crescendo with a vivacious vitality that nods
to a classical era too often ignored by her generation and the mainstream
media.
“It’s my anthem,” she says of the track. “I
actually wrote that song during a low point. I had an option to
leave Los Angeles and take a job for security, and I decided to stay where I
was and keep writing music, even though I was scared and had no idea how I was
going to survive in the months to come. This song is about believing in
yourself and following your ‘internal compass’, no matter what obstacles may
arise.”
Then there’s “Meant,” a heartfelt song about obsession and loss, that shocks with a
classical dramatic piano intro, but leads into a heart-rending soulful ballad
about anger and disappointment towards a lost love. “It’s a poetic exorcism of
passion you still feel – but know it has to be released forever”, adds Elizaveta.
” I like contrasts. When I write, I try to capture the push and pull of
emotion. Life and love are never black and white, and I don’t see why songs
should be”.
Other songs are equally evocative and there
is a distinctly cinematic quality to the record, as a whole. Jazzy “Snow in Venice”, stylistically taking a leaf from Paolo Conte’s songbook, speaks
of Europe, lost connections and features Elizaveta singing a playful, but
wistful verse in Italian. “Nightflyers” floats on a propulsive
bass line and anthemic refrain, while definitely inspired by the Brit-Pop
generation. ‘Odi
et Amo’, with its operatic verses in Latin and
Vivaldiesque string arrangements, paints a picture of dark streets, betrayal
and the fine line between love and hate. “This album is an alchemical
distillation of me as a human,” the artist concludes. “I have taken my life and
the fantastical journey it has been so far and fit it into a small ten-song
box. It’s like magic, but it is not a trick. It’s the truth.
Elizaveta – Official Website
http://www.elizaveta.com/
Elizaveta – Official Blog
http://elizaveta.typepad.com/
Elizaveta - Reverbnation
http://www.reverbnation.com/elizaveta
Elizaveta - Soundcloud
http://soundcloud.com/elizaveta
Elizaveta - MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/breakfastwithchopin
Elizaveta - Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/ElizavetaMusic
Elizaveta- Twitter
https://twitter.com/elizavetaka
Elizaveta – Music Player
http://www.elizavetamusic.com/
Elizaveta – World United Music
http://worldunitedmusic.blogspot.com/2012/01/elizaveta.html
Videos!
Elizaveta - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/elizavetamusic
Elizaveta – YouTube Vevo
http://www.youtube.com/user/ElizavetaVEVO
Buy Music!
Elizaveta – Official Store
http://elizaveta.com/store/
Elizaveta - iTunes
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/elizaveta/id465975674
Elizaveta – Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Elizaveta/dp/B005OI8WZ8
Elizaveta - Rhapsody
http://www.rhapsody.com/#artist/elizaveta?&_suid=137328810742307174887072384275
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