The Late Isabel is back!! And they've announced the release of their upcoming 2nd album. To celebrate the launch, the band invites everyone to come and be at their listening party this Nov 2 at 20:20 in La Fuerza Compound, Pasong Tamo, Makati City.
Read the details below about their new album.
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The Late Isabel is a band that exists outside of time.
It took them 13 years to finally release IMPERIAL, the second album following their groundbreaking debut DOLL'S HEAD in 2004. It was not deliberate procrastination that delayed the album for so long, more like a series of fortuitous events that kept IMPERIAL from being realized, because grander things were to come.
"We had started recording IMPERIAL in 2006. There were songs we had written as far back as when we started the band in 2000 that did not make it on DOLL'S HEAD, and so the plan was to include them on the next album, with the new ones we were writing at the time," recalls Allan Hernandez, the band's guitarist and chief songwriter. "Halfway through the recording, technical problems in the studio forced us to rerecord what we had laid down."
But by then Wawi Navarroza, TLI's vocalist who is also a renowned photographer, had begun taking her visual images to the world, her journeys seeing her in Asia, Europe, and the US, sometimes for up to a year. The Late Isabel had to disappear for a while. Despite the hiatus, new songs were also being written.
In 2011, before Wawi left for Spain on a yearlong art grant, The Late Isabel released the LACKADAISICAL EP, a teaser of what was to come.
Fast forward to 2016, a chance meeting between Wawi and Pinoy rock icon Ely Buendia at the Hong Kong Art Fair got them talking about the stillborn album. It turned out Ely had just set up his new label OFFSHORE MUSIC, and he offered to produce IMPERIAL as his label's first full offering.
And finally, after a year of studio work in Ely's home studio, The Late Isabel unveils IMPERIAL in 2017.
IMPERIAL contains 12 tracks exploring many soundscapes, evoking a wandering mood that gives both a clear sense of sound AND place, a reflection of what The Late Isabel has experienced and seen, especially in Wawi's many travels. There is the moody Spanish flamenco-inspired "Contraluz", the Middle Eastern overtones of "K.S.D. (D.T.F.W.)", the Scottish Highlands march of "Outside Of Time", and the Oriental fantasy of the title track "Imperial." The album is both grand and minimalist, raw and refined, dystopic and hopeful.
You don't hear much of this kind of music these days. And that The Late Isabel is still around after 17 years, still working on the fringes, still playing by its own rules, is testament to what real independent artistry means.
IMPERIAL will be available on Spotify, iTunes and Deezer in November 2017. CD and vinyl release is scheduled for 2018.
Band Management: RIVERSIDE MUSIC GROUP/Pearl Lleno 0917 1533765
TRACK LIST
1. Lackadaisical
2. K.S.D. (D.T.F.W.)
3. Love On Broken Glass
4. Subterranean Day Glo Queen
5. Imperial
6. The Enemies Of Sleep
7. Eunuch
8. Contraluz
9. Isabel The Damaged
10. Tinstick Romance
11. Spin
12. Outside Of Time
CREDITS
THE LATE ISABEL
IMPERIAL
Produced by OFFSHORE MUSIC
Wawi Navarroza, vox
Allan Hernandez, guitars
Roval Bacale, bass
JP Agcaoili, drums
Ted Baula, percussion
Producer: Ely Buendia
Sound and mix engineer: Jerome Velasco
Recorded at The Bunker
Manila, Philippines
photographs and album art direction: Studio Wawi Navarroza
album cover illustration: Mark Olivan
graphic design and typography: Jorell Legaspi
Band Management: Arnie Sison and Pearl Lleno
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