Double A side single releases from Ríona Sally Hartman released on February 24th 2022, two sister songs called SEED and BLOOM. Available now from Bandcamp, Apple Music and Spotify
“I want these songs to get people out of bed in the morning. Seed starts gentle, and joyful, to wake you up while you make your coffee. By the time you’ve reached the end of Bloom the whole band is in full ecstatic mode, cheering you on so you’re ready to go out to face the day.”
- Riona Sally Hartman
Seed & Bloom
Seed, in the beginning, is all about the interplay between the pointillistic, and playful, melodies, and the moment they release into a long, held note. The texture of the song is like a tapestry, with various light, thread-like melodies trading off between the instruments and appearing in different combinations. One of the big inspirations for the song was Lionel Loueke and Angelique Kidjo’s 2010 track Ami O.
Bloom is inspired by two things from Hermeto Pascoal’s music; one is an earworm of a fragment of rhythm from a percussion part, and the other is the conversation-like melody of Little Cry for Him (Chorinho Pra Ele). “I wanted to write a melody that felt like someone speaking, that sounded improvised when it’s first heard but then repeats in various contexts.”
Seed and Bloom are sister songs, they’re best when listened to sequentially.
Listen to Seed & Bloom
Credits
Performed by Ríona Sally Hartman, Johnny Taylor, Julien Colarossi, Neil O Lochlainn, Seán Carpio and Filipa Quintino.
Produced by Karl Odlum.
Mastered by Seán Mac Erlaine.
Artwork Self Portrait 1 and 2 by Ríona Sally Hartman.
Composed by Ríona Sally Hartman.
Ríona Sally Hartman Bio
As a bi-lingual vocalist, composer and songwriter based in Ireland Ríona Sally Hartman’s music has become known for its lush vocal harmonies, acoustic softness and the surrealist stories that accompany her songs.
On her first album songs are sung from the point of view of a cast of characters; there’s Tom Peeping who falls in love with every woman he sees but never speaks to them, there’s the Fish who’s so obsessed with Frida Kahlo it chases a spinner to wear it as an earring and then there’s Sally a very talented but frustrated fortune teller. Her debut album Big Starving Thing was released in May 2015 and described by The Irish Times as a "finely crafted debut album...fresh and unclichéd". Riona’s new releases are more autobiographical.
As well as leading her own solo project Ríona was the first Dublin City Council's Musician in Residence, and performs as a member of many varied collaborative projects including IMLÉ, Monster Monster, Dig A Little Deeper, The National Concert Hall’s Education and Community Outreach Band (ECO) and in Mark Lynch’s An Bóthar. She has been awarded both an Emerging Artist Bursary for the Creation of New Work in 2015 and a Professional Development Arts Grant in 2016, both from Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, she was Dublin Central Library’s Musician in Residence 2018 and is a member of the Improvised Music Company’s board of directors as a representative of young, emerging Irish musicians.
‘A rising star on the Irish scene’
– Lyric FM
“Dubliner Ríona Sally Hartman is capable of using her voice like an instrument, but she is a writer too, interested in the observations and speculations of the poet….delicate vocal harmonies and sparse acoustic settings, fresh and uncliched, perhaps bearing most comparison with intrepid New York singers like Theo Bleckmann and Becca Stevens.”
- The Irish Times
‘A wonderfully crafted pop record with jazz and classical sensibilities’
– Le Cool Dublin
‘A poet, singer, thinker all rolled into one and I really feel Hartman is currently one of our most unique and interesting artists.’
– Remy’s Music and Film Blog
Seed & Bloom were released on 24th February, and is available on Bandcamp, Apple Music and Spotify
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