lost in a moment from dennis wheatley on Vimeo.
We invite you to come and lose yourself in a music full of contrasts.
Let it envelope you with its fresh air and rhythm.
A warm, atmospheric album full of details and vast open space,
snow-capped mountains and hot dessert sand. Mysterious words catching your eye from a distance then winking right by your ear. An acoustic and electronic tappestry of sound brought to you by an embrace full of wonderful musicians.
The aptly titled Lost in a Moment is Shrift's first album, but it's hardly a debut for the group's two members, singer/songwriter Nina Miranda and multi-texturalist/producer Dennis Wheatley. Miranda is a charter member of the celebrated British group Smoke City, which has scored European hits with its unique blend of bossa nova, trip hop, jazz, reggae and funk. Miranda has lent her unique voice and words to projects by such world music luminaries as Bebel Gilberto, Nitin Sawhney, Daniel Jobim, Jah Wobble and Da Lata. Her singing style was formed by a variety of influences, most obviously the divided childhood she spent shuttling between homes in Britain and Brazil. She is equally comfortable singing in English, Portuguese or French, and she shifts between those languages several times during the course of Lost in a Moment.
Dennis Wheatley is best known for his work with Atlas, a British electro band with a history of taking existing elements (Brazilian singers, string quartets, Randy Newman's "Baltimore") and whipping them up into delectably, danceably new ethno-electro mixtures. Miranda was familiar with his work under the Atlas moniker and was drawn in by what she calls the depth of atmosphere and quality of sound.
The mood on Lost in a Moment is, as the albums title suggests, generally dreamy and soft, almost mystical at times, but with a worldly and modern edge. Hum, for example, is built on a single descending snippet of melody, underneath which rhythms subtly percolate and over . Once Upon a Dream is a song reminiscent of the earliest Disney soundtracks, with Miranda joining the evocative strings of Piotr Jordan and Sinan Kadifachi.
Maybe all of this sounds like a description of nothing youve ever heard before. If so, thats because Shrifts music is, in fact, like nothing youve ever heard before. So what are you waiting for? Dont be afraid. Hear it now.
Out Now: Lost In A Moment
Remixed EP
featuring Da Lata and The Real Tuesday Weld Remixes
Nina answers some questions on Shrift.}
WHERE DO YOU FEEL AT HOME? In my incredibly comfortable bed in England and then when im on a plane leaving Englandto many other countries the World!
As soon as the plane lands in Brasil, when I am greeted with the heat of a gigantic hair dryer enveloping me in a huge embrace. Then we sit and have cheese- bread, coffee and papaya juice at the airport cafe and smile from ear to ear. On Stage is good too.t}
WHAT IS "SNOW SAMBA?"
A samba which is out of context- physically far removed from the heat of a Brazilian carnival procession… but feeling some of its early-morning warmth.
It is a quiet procession, that leaves room for thought and reflection, it keeps strange timing and its route is open to change.}
HOW DO YOU ENJOY YOURSELF?
In Brasil you would say how do you divert yourself “se divertir”
So I amuse myself by diverting myself taking the un-planned route, or perhaps,less obvious route, walking sideways, backwards, pretending im someone else talking, singing without thinking. Letting the sub-concious flow like drawing without looking at the paper.
I once had a great life drawing lesson in Brasil where the teacher got us to draw blind - not looking at the paper and just at the model.
This made us unprecious and uncontrolled and our drawings look at once cave-man like and Picasso-esque.
I suppose this is how we approach shrift.
Making music with no rules , just pairs of open - minded ears.
And when it came to doing our recordings it was all about mood, atmosphere, intuition, release, escape.
I wasnt at a particularly happy and confident place emotionally in my life, when I first met Dennis and we started working on shrift. We enjoyed talking about many things, films, music, books, artbut never talked about our personal lives, the emotion could be saved for the music. Naturally we felt that the songs should be un- specific, and not the typical verse-chorusy structure, just a great escape! The whole experience was very cathartic.
FEELING IS EVERYTHING!-
And if I feel the music im halfway there. The music of shrift is a rough diamond, . Not smooth and perfect but it shines and is luminous
It is unfinished, un-polished…
One very known saying I really relate to in music- “LESS IS MORE!”
Dennis and I spent longer on taking away music and vocals than adding them.
We felt it was crucial to keep lots of space for the lisetners, so that they could have somewhere to go to in their thoughts, maybe to add their own melodies to the music, to their day.
Space to let the sound of the world come in and mingle and if the world wasn’t sounding or looking too pleasant, to shut it out with some peace or festivity, courtesy of us.
WHERE ARE YOU?
I am at the moment in Petropolis, in Brazil, up in theSerra the tall mountains covered in forest above Rio de Janeiro.
I am staying at my fathers house, he is a painter and his abstract paintings are music to my eyes!
Here at his house on a hill, I hear the water rushing from the stream, an assortment of dogs barking in the distance, frogs croaking in the pond below, and trucks noisily climbing up the winding roads that surround us.
I see cobwebs glistening in the sun, a family of blue and dusty brown birds frolicking in the valley , then gliding up and darting in between trees.
The bright yellow and purple blossoms in the tall, tall trees are dazzling.
Butter coloured butterflies surf by and large brown butterflies rest on flowers.
Red moss grows on the wooden slats of the deck.
Lost in a moment in time, just a moment away, I am lost, lost in your gentle walk and sway.
x Nina
NEXT INSTALMENT by Dennis!
