WATCH AND SHARE “BREATHING BARREL” HERE
BUY / STREAM “BREATHING BARREL” HERE
DANA SIPOS NEW SANDRO PERRI PRODUCED LP, THE ASTRAL PLANE, OUT JUNE 25, 2021 VIA ROARING GIRL RECORDS
PRE-ORDER THE ASTRAL PLANE HERE
Photo Credit : Chris Dufour // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Dana Sipos’ (Dan-ah Sea-pose) new single, “Breathing Barrel”, which received its radio premiere last weekend on the Strombo Show, “wrote itself more than I wrote it,” says Sipos. “I could sense the textures of the song as it was coming together. Ultimately, it’s a meditation on being in the present while celebrating the freedom and fluidity of trying things on. It’s about anticipation and desire and those magic moments of connection that can present themselves in surprising and unexpected ways.”
The video for “Breathing Barrel” was created by Victoria, BC musician Trevor Lang with dozens of high resolution scans of vintage magazine cut outs, finely tuned to line up with the rhythm of the song. “The pairing of vintage magazine cutouts with the text made to look as though it was coloured in by hand was intended to mirror the warm and analog textural quality of the recording, the feeling of paper and pencil,” says Sipos. “The slightly unusual frame rate of this video (8 frames per second as opposed to the typical stop motion animation of either 6 or 12 frames per second) intended to give the video a familiar but unique rhythm akin to the drum machine featured throughout the song.”
WATCH AND SHARE “BREATHING BARREL” HERE
BUY / STREAM “BREATHING BARREL” HERE
For Sipos’ new LP, The Astral Plane, out June 25 via Roaring Girl Records, she once again teaming up with experimental producer Sandro Perri and reunited with her accomplished studio band for the project, consisting of Thomas Hammerton (keys, piano, organ), Mark McIntyre (bass), Nick Zubeck (guitar), and Blake Howard (percussion), with guest appearances from Lydia Persaud (vocals) and Michael Davidson (vibraphone). To bring the new songs to life, the crew decamped to a large converted 1860s stone carriage house, The House of Miracles, in Cambridge, Ontario, in the summer of 2020. The result is an impeccably curated collection of sounds, anchored by Sipos’ haunting vocals and evocative lyrics.
This LP is the album Sipos has been preparing to write her whole life. Her grandparents survived the Holocaust in their youth and later, with two young children in tow (including Dana’s mother), fled Hungary during the Communist Revolution of 1956. “My grandparents had miraculous lives,” Sipos says. “As child survivors, they both lost so much. During their escape from Hungary they were thrown in jail, sent back, escaped again; my mother was drugged to stay quiet on the journey and almost didn’t survive. They arrived in Canada with $5 sown into a jacket pocket and didn’t speak a word of English. I feel very lucky that they shared these stories and experiences with us.” From her grandfather, she also inherited a love for singing, Jewish jokes and Yiddish humour: “I grew up with a love of stories and storytelling across the board, the unfathomably dark and painful. And despite — or perhaps because of — the hardships, the ability to turn that darkness into humour.” Sipos became a careful observer and close listener at the kitchen table on her grandparents’ farm, where they settled in southern Ontario.
WATCH AND SHARE “SKINNY LEGS” HERE
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Throughout the album, Dana unearths the trauma of her grandparents' early lives, which took a noticeable toll on her family in later years. Sipos has long infused a quality of thoughtful observation into her songwriting, but there’s a new urgency that drives many of these songs. “Skinny Legs” is a goodbye letter to her beloved grandmother, asking questions that cannot be posed in real time. “Greenbelt” specifically explores her upbringing on the farm and the ways, both subtle and overt, that trauma impacted the family over time. And on “Hoodoo”, Sipos explores how this intergenerational legacy mirrors the profoundly damaged earth that generations to come will inherit, highlighting the lasting and cyclical nature of trauma.
WATCH AND SHARE “LIGHT AROUND THE BODY” HERE
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In writing these songs, Sipos is holding memories, often painful ones, up to the light and asking: What is the contour of these memories in your body? How do they shape you? How are these inherited memories and experiences absorbed? What does their aftermath look and feel like?
Described as “slightly strange and completely mesmerising” (Gold Flake Paint UK), Sipos’ work combines enigmatic lyrics and bold production choices. Hailed as a “luminous and compelling work” by Exclaim!, her 2018 release Trick Of The Light was nominated for English Songwriter of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards, shortlisted for the Ontario Arts Council Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award and the Kerrville Folk Festival “New Folk” songwriter competition. The release was supported by tours and festival dates throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Trick Of The Light received acclaim from CBC, The Bluegrass Situation, Penguin Eggs, Folk Roots Radio (UK), and No Depression. Trick Of The Light followed a 2015 album released on Nashville-based Muddy Roots Records and was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in the Pushing The Boundaries category, celebrating innovation in creating new folk sounds, extensive international touring and caught the eye of outfits like No Depression who lauded Sipos as “a consummate singer and songwriter with a wholly unique sound.”
The Astral Plane arrives June 25th via JUNO Award nominated musician Miranda Mulholland's label, Roaring Girl Records.
