Anyone who discovered Diane Cluck’s truly magical ‘Oh Vanille/Ova Nil’ album last year on Important will have already established that she is an artist who has single handedly stolen the singer-songwriter throne from right under the gaze of her vast competition in this often over-saturated niche. With a voice that would melt the iciest of hearts, her power resides in simple but intensely beautiful songwriting coupled with raw lyrical conceits that ooze honesty and fragility. ‘Macy’s Day Bird’ was Cluck’s second full-length album, originally home-released in 2001 to much acclaim and a record deal from Important. The material here and its accompanying EP (also included here on a bonus cd) has been restored and remastered to give it that special something and is now finally available for those not fortunate enough to get hold of the hugely scarce first edition. Since the release of ‘Oh Vanille’ we've been hungry for material with the same emotional clout, these two cds more than fill that void, and have provided us with more songs to hum on the way to work and to haunt these crisp afternoons we're having. This collection of songs is, more than anything else, beautifully intimate, recorded as if Cluck was playing directly to her audience; the sound of a phone goes off in the background, her guitar is unplugged as she answers it, you can hear the sound of the room she is sitting in (imagine it as a bare room in a wooden house, with a late-afternoon sun creeping in through the dusty windows). All in all we have something timeless and utterly magical, a series of personal dialogues captured forever on compact disc.
artist: Diane Cluck
title: Macy's Day Bird/Black With Green Leaves
catalog number: imprec078
format: double cd
This deluxe double cd, priced the same as a single disc, pairs up Diane Cluck's 2nd full length album Macy's Day Bird with the ep titled Black With Green Leaves. Both were originally was released by Diane in an elaborate tiny handmade edtions. These are arguably Diane's most compelling, immediate and striking records and it was these two recordings that originally caught the ear of Important Records in 2001.
Macy's Day Bird/Black With Green Leaves is highly recommended to Diane's many new fans who picked up on her after the release of Oh Vanille/Ova Nil in early 2005. The attentive listener will find her hauntingly clear voice weaving melodies of love, pain and city life through sparse arrangements of piano, acoustic guitar and harmonium. This material is newly restored/mastered by James Fei.
Oh Vanille/Ova Nil was recently given the status of No. 2 US Underground album of 2005 by the UK's esteemed Mojo Magazine.
"i made these albums a few years ago for myself and friends about myself and friends.
to me they're total fidelity recordings-- true documents of how i felt / what i experienced
in a particular time and place there. have been suggestions that i rerecord
to make the songs sound some version of more appealing...
but i'd rather keep flowing / playing in the moment things come out right the first time
even if they are hard to look at / hear in that form those tend to be the forms
which teach me the most about myself / the world...don't apologize for yrself !
be a mess...be whatever...
these songs were important for me to make & record if they're useful / helpful to other people
i'm glad about that !" - Diane Cluck
- This is the material that got Diane "signed" to Important Records.
- This double cd is housed in a deluxe gatefold cardboard sleeve of the highest quality and priced modestly as a single cd
- Diane's previous album on Important was met with much acclaim and Mojo magazine elected it underground album of the month who also ranked it in their top 10 underground albums of 2005
- Diane has toured Europe and the United States extensively in the last few years.
- She appeared alongside Iron & Wine, Vertiver, Joanna Newsom, Six Organs Of Admittance, White Magic, Matt Valentine, CocoRosie, Vashti Bunyan and many more on the 2004 Golden Apples Of The Sun compilation in Arthur Magazine. This collection was called “Essential” by Mojo Magazine.
- Diane has played with Cocorosie, Devendra Banhart, Genesis P-Orridge, Kimya Dawson, Herman-Dune, Barry Bliss, Jeffrey Lewis and many more.
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