Exene Cervenka - Somewhere Gone - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Four years in the re-making, ACTUAL SIGHS is the re-recording by Richard X Heyman of ACTUAL SIZE, the six-song mini album that started it all for the New York songsmith in 1986. Well, it's the re-recording and then some, Heyman brings the total number of tracks on ACTUAL SIGHS to 20 - or one for each year that's passed since ACTUAL SIZE was released in 1986. And again, he recorded at home, though the 8-track Tascam machine has been replaced with updated technology.

The album brings together the potential and innocence of young love, the gravity of departure, and the symbolic changing of seasons. The lead track InchAlready in LoveInch builds on Exene's characteristic blend of folk, deep country and poppy yet wide-open spaces with the uplifting punch of horn lines, Dave Alvin (The Blasters, X) on electric guitar, and the soulful undertone of a Hammond Organ.

Less than one year after the debut Apple Bay the ten piece collective Irene returns with a new, wonderful album. Long Gone Since Last Summer combines big arrangements, crystal clear production and unsurpassed sing-along qualities in an irresistibly elegant manner. The slightly unpolished, '60s influenced sound found on the debut has cleared up. This time Irene aimed at making an album that is impossible to place in time, and still sounds great. A big sound demands a big band. Since last year, Irene has expanded to a ten piece collective. This could have made touring abroad impossible, but despite this they managed to tour large parts of Europe including France, Germany, Spain and the UK. They've already booked Germany, the UK and the US for the fall and more shows are being planned. Long Gone Since Last Summer is written, arranged and produced by Irene's own Tobias Isaksson, aka Bobby, and recorded by Ulf Wederbrand at Studio Folkhemmet. 'The new Irene track brims with jangly guitars, effervescent horns, and plenty of backing singers to answer lead vocalist Bobby's playfully referential words of adoration' -Pitchfork. 'Sounds fantastic' -Eardrums.