DESCRIPTION:
Artist/Band: Jo Hamilton
Album: "Gown"
Released: 2009

Jo Hamilton's debut album, entitled "Gown" is a collective of earthy, soothing, uplifting songs charged with emotion. Melodies that can only be described as expansive lullabies reflect our hopes, our glories and our tragedies. Jo draws from the experiences of her nomadic lifestyle which influence her naturalistic lyrics that are filled with observations of the world both small and large -- ranging from grief and global warming to the mountains of Scotland and the long-legged beetles of Kuwait.

A classically trained musician and member of The Rainbow Chasers, Jo Hamilton was born into a semi-nomadic family, with roots in Jamaica and Kenya, but spent her youth globe trotting from a remote base in northern Scotland to as far afield as Cambodia, to where she later returned, making recordings that eventually worked their way into songs now on Gown. This album is a similar journey; crammed with the multitude of global influences she has gathered along the way. During the journey, Hamilton returns to her Scottish origins with two of the album's best tracks, "Think Of Me" being one of them. The song begins as a tender greeting and builds to an uninhibited, celebratory, homecoming cry.

With Gown, Hamilton manages to blur the boundaries between folk and electronica with consummate ease. The result is an album full of atmosphere that is rich, warm and often stunning. It is an exotic musical journey, brushing the multicultural world wings of dreamy celestial pop tinged with Gaelic mist (Exist), cobwebby jazz soul folk (The Bush infused Pick Me Up), airy Brill building balladry (There It Is), the panoramic rhythms of African plains (How Beautiful), and the melting icicle soulful ebb and flow fragility of Deeper (Glorious). Then there's the Weill cabaret shades to All In Adoration with its puttering percussion beats and woodwind trills, the classical hymnal majesty of Liathach's choral beauty and, drawing on her time in Cambodia, the intoxicatingly hushed seductiveness that is Mekong Song.

In 2010, Hamilton became the first musician in the world to work with an Airpiano, a non-contact electronic instrument being developed by Berlin-based inventor Omer Yosha. The result of Hamilton's introduction to the Airpiano was a short film entitled "A New Instrument" about Hamilton's trip to Berlin and her resultant work with the instrument.

As well as the Airpiano film "A New Instrument", Hamilton has created a series of films to accompany "Gown". These serve as both EPKs (electronic press kits) for industry use, and as visual extensions of "Gown" in their own right.

"When Jo sings, something thaws that I didnʼt even realise was frozen." - Sweet Billy Pilgrim (Mercury Music Prize Nominees 2009)

"Gown could well become the blueprint for the progression of folk and it sets quite a standard." - Dave Adair (Glasswerk)

If you wish to purchase "Gown" and/or anything related to Jo Hamilton, please go here:
http://www.poseidonmusic.com/label/shop/

If you wish to purchase "Think of Me" digitally, go here:
http://johamiltongown.bandcamp.com/track/think-of-me

If you wish to buy the whole digital album, please go here:
http://johamiltongown.bandcamp.com/album/gown

For further information, please visit:
http://news.johamilton.com/
https://www.facebook.com/johamiltongown?ref=s
http://www.myspace.com/johamiltongown
http://www.youtube.com/johamiltongown
http://www.last.fm/music/Jo+Hamilton

Lyrics:

"Think of me"
Hear the wind through the trees

And the river running by

And sometimes through the cold clear freeze

You may hear the Sika's screaming cry



So think of me

When the light is fading

And home is on your mind

Think of me

When the light is fading

And time is on your side



Walk at night and through the blackness

The moon reflects so bright

And the mist at dawn down the glen

Lingers for the sun then is gone



So think of me

When the light is falling

And home is where you are

Think of me

When the light is falling

And time is on your side



Still the sun will set without me

Once again over Loch Maree

And when you sing Auld Lang Syne

Gently in harmony

Iʼll be in the fields and in the mountains

Iʼm in the earth and through the seasons

Iʼm in the stones and every blade of grass

Iʼm in the air....

-All the material used in this video, is property of the artist who recorded this material. No copyright infringement intended.

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