The Tori Thread

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Re: The Tori Thread

Post by blue »

Cor blimey, I thought there'd be preview clips and interviews and stuff by now, it seems like ages since the press release. I'm so impatient for this album.

I wonder if the fact that it's coming out on a classical label means the promotion will be different than usual? I suppose she'll be talking to classical music publications this time. The release has already been reported in Opera News. :D :D

It's so weird as well seeing Tori Amos listed on the DG artists index, she has her own page too.
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Re: The Tori Thread

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She's on DG?!??
Stone the crows, when did they start lowering their sights? Very strange, considering DG is just the classical imprint of Polydor, and there must be thousands of other labels that they could have put her on. I wonder why?
Is she going to get the famous yellow strapline, then? cue serious pictures of Ms. Amos looking like a mystical Ubermensch magician on a break from the Waffen Valkyries.
Next they'll have her conducting Brahms or some other slab of the great Germanic tradition.

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Re: The Tori Thread

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blue wrote:First thoughts - 14 tracks not 244 as per the last few records
Hahahahahhaha.... :D

Honestly, I have not bought a Tori album since, uh, the one after Scarlet's Walk. But from the little bit I've hear about this one I'm very interested!

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Re: The Tori Thread

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sound world wrote:She's on DG?!??
Stone the crows, when did they start lowering their sights? Very strange, considering DG is just the classical imprint of Polydor, and there must be thousands of other labels that they could have put her on. I wonder why?
Is she going to get the famous yellow strapline, then?
I was amazed as well, but then .... she is a classically trained musician, and this does appear to be a chamber music record. There's no indication at all that there's any sort of amplified instrument on it, not even the other keyboards that she would normally use on her albums. It's a bona fide chamber affair.

I honestly can't wait, because other than Tori my main musical interest is classical music and specifically chamber music, so for me this is like a dream. ^ ^

The promo pic we've seen of the cover doesn't have the DG yellow stripe, but it would be so funny if the actual cover did - that would be surreal! :D

Incidentally Dave, I think the classical music labels started 'lowering their sights' when they began churning out all that crossover dross, Hayley Westenra et al and those groups of goodlooking young men singing banal arrangements of 'classical' choons for elderly ladies to feel a bit frisky over. That's been going on for years.

Tori is NOT of that ilk, whatever you may think of her music. Neither is Elvis Costello, who has also released an album on DG with the Brodsky Quartet. Personally I don't think DG is lowering their sights by getting involved with projects by musicians of that calibre.
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Re: The Tori Thread

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Angie wrote:
blue wrote:First thoughts - 14 tracks not 244 as per the last few records
Hahahahahhaha.... :D

Honestly, I have not bought a Tori album since, uh, the one after Scarlet's Walk. But from the little bit I've hear about this one I'm very interested!
I seem to recall you quite liked The Beekeeper, although perhaps that's changed? You didn't miss a lot by not getting the next two, although both contain tracks I really like. You should check out Midwinter Graces though, something of a return of 'old Tori' and a really lovely seasonal album.

I think the fans are in for a shock with this new album. Even though we've had the info about the line-up and we know it's on a classical label, I don't think many fans have really grasped that this is not going to be a pop record. It'll be interesting to see the reaction, I suspect there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth even if it's actually GOOD.
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Re: The Tori Thread

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blue wrote:
Incidentally Dave, I think the classical music labels started 'lowering their sights' when they began churning out all that crossover dross, Hayley Westenra et al and those groups of goodlooking young men singing banal arrangements of 'classical' choons for elderly ladies to feel a bit frisky over. That's been going on for years.
I've never heard of Hayley thingy; maybe just as well. But I do note this kind of weird phenomenon of a kind of alternative world of 'classical' music, the Russell Watsons and Katherine Jenkins etc, who seem to have a massive following but have nothing to do with a whole other section of the normal classical world. Strange. Katherine Jenkins is kind of pretty, but her voice is nowt special. I suppose it's a bit like Kenny G's relationship to jazz .
blue wrote: Tori is NOT of that ilk, whatever you may think of her music. Neither is Elvis Costello, who has also released an album on DG with the Brodsky Quartet. Personally I don't think DG is lowering their sights by getting involved with projects by musicians of that calibre.
Oh I agree, I'm just surprised that DG even contemplate people in the 'popular' world. They used to be so stuffy; they had a branch devoted to contemporary music, but mainly Second Viennese School, otherwise they were like Viennese audiences, never daring to go beyond Brahms or at the very most, Mahler and Sibelius.

The best album I heard last year was a collaboration between Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, quality. It was made in 1999 but I only heard it last year.

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Re: The Tori Thread

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sound world wrote:
I've never heard of Hayley thingy; maybe just as well. But I do note this kind of weird phenomenon of a kind of alternative world of 'classical' music, the Russell Watsons and Katherine Jenkins etc, who seem to have a massive following but have nothing to do with a whole other section of the normal classical world. Strange. Katherine Jenkins is kind of pretty, but her voice is nowt special. I suppose it's a bit like Kenny G's relationship to jazz .
Yeah, that's another whole stratum of the crossover thing, I think - it's amazing the market there is for that stuff, I guess it's inevitable that even big classical labels would go in for it given the money to be made. And that money is probably subsidising the serious stuff, so ..... I guess it's a necessary evil.

sound world wrote:Oh I agree, I'm just surprised that DG even contemplate people in the 'popular' world. They used to be so stuffy; they had a branch devoted to contemporary music, but mainly Second Viennese School, otherwise they were like Viennese audiences, never daring to go beyond Brahms or at the very most, Mahler and Sibelius.
Ok, got you - well I think DG has been changing for a good few years now, it started with some of their 'serious' artists releasing CDs of lighter work which obviously went down well, so they've been becoming less stuffy for a while. That said, I'm assuming they wouldn't get involved with just any pop or rock musician for the sake of it (or for financial reasons). They presumably recognise that people like Tori and Elvis Costello are a different breed. In Tori's case she's a Conservatoire trained pianist so she has a provenance if you like, she started off in the world of classical music.
sound world wrote:The best album I heard last year was a collaboration between Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, quality. It was made in 1999 but I only heard it last year.
Costello has done some really interesting collaborations over the years. The album he did with the Brodsky Quartet was The Juliet Letters, worth checking out if you haven't heard it.
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Re: The Tori Thread

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There's a description up on Amazon now, presumably from Tori's camp. It actually states that Tori is the woman in the story and that this 'night of transition' takes place at her house in County Kerry, Ireland, after the 'shattering' of her relationship with her partner.

I am actually gobsmacked. After a good dozen years of Tori dissembling to keep her private life out of her work on Husband's instructions, I am stunned that she would come out with something this openly personal and autobiographical. That in itself suggests her marriage must be over. Wow.

The description of the song cycle is pulling in all kinds of elements from Irish myth, it sounds intriguing at the very least.

Oh and Dave, the clarinettist on the record is the Principal Clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic, no less! :D
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Re: The Tori Thread

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Ah well maybe he was the mole with the DG link.

Funnily enough, I've just been at WOMAD and one of the best bands there was a German band La Brasbanda who played absolutely stonking funk-on trumpet, trombone, tuba, and drums, of all combinations. The tuba player was astonishing. I went along to their 'workshop' which was actually just a chat between Mandy from WOMAD and the tuba player-and he let slip that his day job was as principal tuba with the Berlin Phil. :mrgreen:

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Re: The Tori Thread

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Ha, Sabine Meyer has a lot to answer for! She was one of the first Principals from the Berlin Phil to insist on being allowed to do her own thing outside the 'day job'. I think it's great actually that classical musicians get involved with other kinds of music, it's refreshing as well how many of them are into non-classical.

I forgot to say yesterday that there was mention in the Amazon thing of several composers Tori has drawn from in the new album, bearing in mind the original description made it sound like a suite of variations - Bach, Schubert, Granados and Satie have been mentioned so far. I was kind of expecting Schubert because she's woven fragments of his music into her songs before, and I guess Satie's piano music was probably a given, but I don't know Granados' music at all so that will be interesting for me.
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Re: The Tori Thread

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blue wrote:I guess Satie's piano music was probably a given
The first thing that popped into my head when I read this was, "Did Erik call, by the way?" Is that from a b-side? I'm sure it's not too obscure for you, anyway. :wink: I know it referenced her boyfriend at the time, but my two years of majoring in music ed hasn't completely gone away. I remember really liking Satie, but overall I know next to nothing about classical music. Still, this new album is so intriguing.
blue wrote:I seem to recall you quite liked The Beekeeper, although perhaps that's changed?
Uh, I barely remember a thing from it! Except for hating the song about ribbons! Scarlet's Walk OTOH really grew on me eventually, and part of me wishes I had kept up with her. I saw her on her last tour and it was awesome, but I was a little sad that I didn't know every single word to every single song anymore.

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Re: The Tori Thread

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Angie wrote:
The first thing that popped into my head when I read this was, "Did Erik call, by the way?" Is that from a b-side? I'm sure it's not too obscure for you, anyway. :wink: I know it referenced her boyfriend at the time
Yes, it's from 'Black Swan', one of the UTP b-sides, a lovely solo piano song which for me has a definite Scriabin influence - I often think Tori and Scriabin have a lot in common as musical personalities. Both gifted, away with pixies and full of their own self-importance to the point where it borders on parody. :D

angie wrote: I remember really liking Satie, but overall I know next to nothing about classical music. Still, this new album is so intriguing.
I love the Gnossiennes and Gymnopedies, but a lot of Satie's piano music is too abstract for me. I'm intrigued to know which piece she's drawn from.

The song 'Battle of Trees' is based on Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante Defunte, which is one of my all-time favourite pieces of music so I'm stoked about that. I was really hoping there'd be some Ravel in there somewhere, and I'm hoping for some Prokofiev as well.

angie wrote: I saw her on her last tour and it was awesome, but I was a little sad that I didn't know every single word to every single song anymore.
Ah well that's more than I did Angie, I didn't bother with the last tour because her live vocals seemed to have gone downhill a lot since '05. That said, some dates on the last tour she really seemed to come back to something like her old self and I kind of regretted not seeing her in London. You obviously got her on a good night.
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Re: The Tori Thread

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So the first interview is out, and it seems she and hubby are still together and he's still involved in her work. Which makes the track by track synopsis she wrote on Amazon (which has subsequently been removed) rather puzzling.

There's something odd going on here. She is placing herself and her partner as the protagonists of this break-up drama on the new album, and locating the story at her real-life home in Ireland, but apparently nothing has actually happened. Um ....

I'm starting to think there's a level of cynicism involved here that's kind of breathtaking even for Tori. The way the break-up story and the album artwork hark back to Boys For Pele which was the amazing album she made after she broke up with her previous partner. Much of BFP was recorded at the house in Ireland, a fact well-known to longtime fans, and the cover photograph of that record was inspired by a scene from the film Night of the Hunter. All these links back to what most fans regard as her best album, the quintessence of the Tori they adored.

Is she deliberatly trying to evoke the atmosphere of BFP as an attempt to win back her lost fanbase? Even if it means blatantly lying by implicating her current relationship in a break-up drama that isn't actually true? :?: :shock:

How low she's stooping, if that's the case. On the other hand, I guess it would indicate that she is aware of how much of the fanbase she's lost over the last six years, and how keen she is to get them back. But still .... wow.

Ah well. Its the music that matters, and first accounts from those who have promo copies are extremely positive. It's very different from recent albums.
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Re: The Tori Thread

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Two full tracks, 'Nautical Twilight' and 'Carry', appeared on Soundcloud yesterday. They've been taken down now but both songs are on youtube.

I've surprised myself by deciding to wait for the CD and hear the whole album in full, possibly because it's chamber music and it would seem odd to hear bits and pieces out of context. It's only a month or so till the official release, and I'm really looking forward to sitting down with the album on headphones at home, old skool style.

The reaction on the boards has been pretty amazing, even on unforumzed (formerly the notorious atforumz) where the real hardcore disillusioned Tori fans tend to congregate. They haven't given her an inch since The Beekeeper. But lots of people loving what she's done on the new stuff, phrases like 'return to form' bandied about, even some people asking for sellotape to stick their fancards back together .... :D :D

I'm loving reading all the reaction, I hope it is indeed a return to form. It did seem like it was coming after the gorgeous Midwinter Graces. ^
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Re: The Tori Thread

Post by RobB »

I did listen to Nautical Twilight and i wasn't overkeen on it. :mrgreen:

The orchestral arrangement is far too fussy and the song itself far too 'wordy'.

The impression i got was that she wrote the lyric and then tried (tried being the operative word) to put a decent melody on top.

Its still a good track though,with nice piano on it, but its a long way from being 'classic' Tori.

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