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Bellissimo Video by BEN IB . see complete version on www.dailymotion.com
Joanna, Nick and Dan started off on their musical odyssey by playing numerous function gigs, weddings, bar mitzvahs and small furry animal funerals.
They would start a gig crooning the standards then as the gig progressed, and the inevitable inebriation of guests began to kick in, the band would make the seamless transition into unbridled experimentation. Playing with rhythm and sound, dissecting a classic song and bringing it back to life in a weird and wonderful way. From this quixotic brew, and out of this chaos, a strange alien caberet was emerging.
Drawing upon their varying experiences from these gigs, the 3 set about arranging and orchestrating Nick's songs; and in Dan's compact and bijou studio and Nick and Joanna's garden shed, the birth of Ilya began.
Ilya signed to Virgin Records in 2002 and 3 EP's were put out in 2003 whilst the album which was recorded prior to the EP's was being held back for a big launch.
The release date arrived in Febuary of 2004, and Ilya were promptly released from Virgin almost before the record hit the shops.
Despite minimal if pretty non-exsistent marketting, the album recieved critical acclaim, and sold 40.000 copies during the spring and summer of 2004; mostly thanks to the profile bought to the band by Revlon using their flagship song, Bellissimo ,in a world-wide advertising campaign.
Q Review March 2004.
Is there a Bristolian left who doesn't harbour ambitions of a torchy, cinematic bent? Ilya are the latest to go public, plumping for velvet-draped melodrama, orchestral swathes and even a Bond-theme finale. Though covering similar turf to massive Attack's Francophille accomplices Alpha, at least Ilya take things to pleasurable the edge of overkill.Happy And Weak fuses flamenco fervour trumpet solos and Middle Eastern vocal samples, while on the soaring title track, vocalist Jo Swan's sassy diva act goes the whole Shirley Bassey-meets Nina Simone hog. With jazzy AOR tinges of Sade on Bliss and Soleil Soleil, the coffee table crown is theirs for the taking.Martin Aston***********************************
Letter from, Han's.Executive Director of SEAsian region of Virgin.March 2004I just HAD to write to you about Ilya
It's almost midnight in Hong Kong right now and I am listening to this album that brings to mind everything and everyone from Scott Walker, Jacques Brel, Jobim, Ipenema, and Paris
to James Bond, gitanes, jazz, blues, R&B and everything in-between.
And I guess that's the key- Ilya defies comparisons and does everything in-between. If there is old-fashioned, then she is a new fashioned chanteuse-and from Bristol.
If there is an EPK or music video or any onstage performances, I would love to see/hear it all. Cheers. I'll certainly do my best to pass on the message: Ilya est iciAnd so is the Future.
Thankyou for sharing this brillient album with us all, including me. It's been quite a ( musical) trip.
Just wish I could work on this act
Hans********************************
The Guardian April 24th 2004 * Ilya live at Ronnie Scott's London.
Weird and exotic things have a habit of tiptoeing up the M4 from Bristol,and the latest is Ilya. Part band, part high-art concept, their debut album They died For Beauty proved an instant intoxicant for critics.
Ilya's sumptuous track Bellissimo has just been bought up by cosmetics momolith Revlon for a world wide advertising campaign, and you sense that this is an outfit on a roll.
This show was a somewhat experimental toe in the water before Ilya hits the road in May, but the relaxed atmosphere at Ronnie's on a sleepy sunday night made a perfect fit with their languid beats and daring stylistic inventions. Maybe they set out with the intention of making life tough for critics, because their music comes close to being indescribable, there's something like trip-hop in there somewhere, but there's also Edmundo Ros-style dance music, cool jazz, modern jazz, Hungarian dances and grand opera.
The core of Ilya is guitarist/writer Nick Pullin, bassist Dan Brown and Singer Joanna Swan, with the sound filled out by extra violin, mandalin and trumpet, plus a devious pallette of samples.
Their "act" is just them in the process of making music, though Swan is one of the more striking vocalists you're likely to see. She stood centre stage in a black chiffon night gown with red feathery trimmings, hinting at a bottomless decadence hidden behind suburban net curtains. Her voice has a husky bloom to it that travels comfortably over the cracked rhumba of All For Melody or the Balkan -Hyspanic brew of Happy And Weak as if these sorts of hybrids happened all the time. In Quattra Neon, Swan held the microphone further from her mouth to unleash a strident contralto-ish tone Jessye Norman might have admired. Thanks to her bell-like diction, you could hear all the lyrics too-"Here in paradise dog's are sleeping on the ice".It don't mean a thing, but it swingsAdam Sweeting
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