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Band News

Projekt Releases Windblown Kiss

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If you weren’t able to pick up a pre-release copy of our latest album at ProjektFest, you can now purchase Windblown Kiss for just $11.98 online from Projekt Records, including first class shipping!

Windblown Kiss is the first full-length album by Lovespirals, the beautiful, and beautifully surprising collaboration of Ryan Lum (the driving force behind legendary Love Spirals Downwards) and avant-garde singer/songwriter Anji Bee.

Renown multi-instrumentalist Lum once again creates musical landscapes of breathtaking beauty – and with vocal styles ranging from ethereal to earthy, sweet to sensual, Bee shows off her remarkable vocal range, and allows the full force of her voice to soar into the sublime. 

Drawing inspiration from Flamenco, Bebop, soul, folk and the stacks of early vinyl they each grew up loving, Lovespirals has created a timeless world of romance and intrigue. Leaving behind the conventional restraints of dance-floor tracks, this latest endeavor is at once a dreamscape of nostalgia, and a kiss blown to the future. 

Using half a dozen different guitars, and featuring the extraordinary talents of Doron Orenstein (of Toof) on saxophone, and Sean Bowley (of Eden) on acoustic guitar and vocals, Windblown Kiss is a celebration of creative anachronism: the past and the future negotiate a gorgeous balance.

— Projekt.com
Band News, Interview

Jive Magazine Interview and New Song

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Jive interviewed Ryan and Anji for the music section of their print magazine. Their website also features Lovespirals interview plus an mp3 of the brand new unreleased song, “Love Survives.” Be sure to check that out at www.jivemagazine.com and if you can pick up a copy of the magazine, snatch it up now!

May 2002, Jive Magazine, Russ Marshalek

Q: When did the Ryan/Anji collaborations begin, and how did that come to be?

Anji: Ryan and I started working together late 1998, early 1999. We pretty much hooked up through my radio show on KUCI 88.9 fm. He had me come over to his studio to check out some new stuff he was working on (which later turned out to be ‘Beatitude’ and ‘Love Survives’) and I was really into it. The first two songs we did, “Ecstatic” and “Hand in Hand,’ Ryan made dub plates of; he was more heavily into deejaying at that time.

Q: Is it a 50/50 sort of artistic collaboration, with one person writing music and the other writing vocals?

Anji: We actually write the songs together. There’s no one way we compose, exactly, but lately we’ve been working from guitar and vocal lines first. I go around singing things all the time, so I’ve got a backlog of song ideas to work on whenever he’s ready. Ryan plays guitar and bass, and can hack out stuff on keyboard, so he does all of that for us. He does most of the programming, too, I pretty much just co-write and produce along side of him. I don’t really play any instruments, but I’m into sampling and looping, and know my way around ProTools and Peak, which is what we basically use.

Continue reading Jive Magazine Interview and New Song →
Band News

ProjektFest 2002 is a wrap!

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Got back from Philly last night. We enjoyed ProjektFest more than we anticipated. It was nice to hang with Audra and Mira at the after parties, and to see old pals like Roachie, Johnny, Lisa etc… There’s some talk of us doing a West Coast tour with Mira this Summer, which would be really cool! We especially hope to hit Portland and San Francisco, where we have friends and family. Keep posted to our news section for updates!

Here’s some photos from Lovespirals whirlwind weekend. From the top left, Lovespirals doing soundcheck at The Trocodero Theatre, Ryan playing his new semi-hollow body guitar during our set, Ryan, Anji, and Doron performing at The Trocodero Theatre, Ryan and Anji doing a stripped down set at the Bizarre Bazaar, meeting fans at the Bazaar.Special thanks to Tome Wilson for photographing us — and for picking us up at the airport in a limo — and thank you to everyone who came out to see us!

Soundcheck at the Trocodero
Uncategorized

AV Club Reviews Ever

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The Onion’s AV Club has posted a fairly positive review of Love Spirals Downwards’ 1996 album, Ever, to their website:

In the past 10 years, countless shoegazing dream-pop bands have come and gone, leaving behind a large but largely forgotten body of lush, languorous work. If that ethereal little subgenre is dead, Love Spirals Downwards plays “post-shoegazer” music, co-opting the crisply pretty guitar lines and billowy female vocals—and stripping away the layers of cloudiness that typify the work of bands like Slowdive and pre-1995 Lush. Ever , Love Spirals Downwards’ third album, plays through like one long, meandering voice, albeit one that’s sometimes fed through filters or accompanied by acoustic guitars and the occasional electronic noise. Singer Suzanne Perry has one of those high, hypnotic voices that swoop and soar dramatically, and it’s awfully pretty to listen to. It’s just too bad that a substantial portion of Ever is devoted to ambient noodling rather than simple, unpretentious voice-and-guitar tracks like “El Pedregal” and “Lieberflusse.” Still, it’s a nice, airy surprise, recalling many of the best things about a lot of dead-and-gone bands.

—Stephen Thompson, AV Club

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Windblown Kiss PR: New Bio & Band Glossy

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Lovespirals are gearing up to release our first full length album this Summer on Projekt Records. Are you excited yet? You will be after you read our snappy new bio:

Lovespirals are musician/producer Ryan Lum and singer/songwriter Anji Bee. This duo’s lush, sensual collaborative songwriting embraces numerous styles and sounds, creating a unique blend which defies genre categories altogether.  Beginning their collaboration in 1999 with Jazz Step Drum & Bass dubplates spun in Ryan’s DJ sets, then continuing on with  a series of singles released on compilations for various labels (including Water Music and Metropolis Records), the band has traversed vast musical territory to arrive at their first full-length album for Projekt Records.  Due out June 18, 2002, Windblown Kiss, is focused on beautiful melodies based around Ryan Lum’s dreamy acoustic and electric guitar playing and Anji Bee’s versatile vocal work.  This first full-length album also features special guest musicians Sean Bowey, of Eden, and Doron Orenstein, of Frescoe, on several tracks.  Slow-burning Blues, Bebop Jazz, Flamenco-spiced Folk Rock,  Western-tinged Dream Pop – Lovespirals blend all these influences and more into heady, intoxicating mixture.  Romantic, spiritual, and utterly heartfelt, Windblown Kiss envelopes one in a beautifully soothing dream-drenched world, timeless in quality and essence.

— Projekt Records
Review

MusicTAP Reviews Excelsis 3 ~ A Prelude

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Another review has come in for the new holiday Projekt comp. Matt Rowe of MusicTap gives the Maxi CD a 4 out of 5 star rating and a glowing review which reads, in part:

“The Excelsis collection issued by Projekt are comprised of some of the most mystically enchanting songs that refer to the Christmas holidays. With ghostly reverence that is ethereally communicated to us by the artists that interpret the selections, we are taken on a journey of such aching perfection that we can only melt into the songs, become one with them. With the release of Excelsis 3 ~ A Prelude, Projekt have provided us with yet another great set of beautifully rendered Christmas tunes. Lovespirals gives us “Aspen Glow”, a song borrowed from John Denver and sweetly sung in as good a version as you’ll ever hear by the beautiful Anji Bee, who’s voice is as charming as a winter scene that you become lost in. Ryan and Anji’s respect for the season is deeply felt. This track has become one of my favorite seasonal songs.”

Rowe’s view on the holiday season could honestly not be in more stark contrast to the fellow from Chain D.L.K., almost comically so. But its nice to know that both people who hate and revere Christmas adore the Excelsis compilation series:

“Christmas is a wonderful time that delineates the essence of everything pure and good. It is a mystery that can never be contained nor revealed and yet, is felt as a pain of something never grasped. The fundamental nature of it is in the beauty of the songs on this disc but vanishes as soon as you take the disc out of the player. Regardless, they leave a resonant peace that you can count as ‘value added’. Cheers to Projekt for this collection and the sets that preceded it. My Christmas wish is that Projekt would carry on with this series and continue to provide us with the intrinsic magnificence that is Christmas.” – Matt Rowe

Be sure to order your copy of this holiday themed Maxi CD from Projekt!

Review

Chain D.L.K. Reviews Excelsis 3 ~ A Prelude

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A cheeky review has been posted on gothic industrial site, Chain D.L.K. written by Shaun Hamilton. It reads, in part:

“Ahhhhh, X-Mas…. The smell of pinecones roasting on the fire — or something like that. Or was it elves? Hell, toss them in there too! I hate X-Mas, and I’m not a cheery one to have around the house at that time of year, but this CD is something good to come out of it and the series in general. Projekt has always been music made for winter time and it shows why this is my choice music to listen to on a nice winter day inside. Lovespirals kicks in with their special brand of babymaking music. I can’t help it, everything this bands sings and plays sounds so kinky and sensual, but still so classy! And it is the first time I’ve heard someone sounding dead on like Liz Frazier without being a knockoff.”

If you’re intrigued, be sure to grab a copy of this holiday themed Maxi CD from Projekt!