Elysian Fields (band)

Elysian Fields are a rock music group founded in 1995 by Jennifer Charles (vocals) and Oren Bloedow (guitar). Their music, perhaps best classified as Rock Noir, has been described as sultry, smoky, dark and mysterious.

Though based in New York City, Elysian Fields have found only underground success in the United States, and are more popular in France. Author of "The Dark Stuff", Nick Kent says of their music, " maybe we have their out-of-the-mainstreamness to thank for a sound that is still unique -- as sensual as a sleepwalker's wet dream."

History

Elysian Fields first released an EP in 1995, which was followed up with the full length, Bleed Your Cedar, and in 2000 Queen of the Meadow. Another record made with Steve Albini between their first and the second was never released. Despite their record company's suggestions, Charles and Bloedow did not want to give the recording a more commercial feel, prompting a split with Radioactive/Universal, who retain the recording. Charles states, "We made our second full length with Steve Albini. It wasn't at all what the label was looking for, or wanted. The label wanted us to redo things, go in with more commercial people, and give them songs that they could sell. I didn't want to mess with what we made with Steve. It was what it was. In the end we agreed to disagree, I asked to be released from my contract, and we parted ways. For now it sits in some vault gathering dust, I suppose.

In June 2003 the band released Dreams That Breathe Your Name in France and the Benelux, followed by an American release in 2004. Elysian Fields latest album is Bum Raps and Love Taps, which was release in Europe in Autumn 2005 under the label Naive. The album is dedicated to Jennifer's Grandmother, about whom the title track was written. Another song Duel with Cudgels, eight minutes and thirty seconds long, takes its title from a Goya painting. Their music is lush and melancholy, with poetic and sometimes surreal lyrics.

Charles and Bloedow also released an album of Sephardic songs on John Zorn's Tzadik label called "La Mar Enfortuna". They give ancient moorish melodies a revamp with their signature Elysian Fields sound. Charles sings in Ladino as well as one song in Arabic on this album.

Discography

• Bum Raps and Love Taps - (2005) - Naive records
  • Lions in the Storm
  • Set the Grass on Fire
  • Sharpening Skills
  • Duel With Cudgels
  • Lame Lady of the HIghways
  • When
  • Out to Sea
  • Bum Raps and Love Taps
  • We're in Love

• Dreams That Breathe Your Name - (2003)
  • Stop the Sun
  • Shooting Stars
  • Shrinking Heads In The Sunset
  • Baby Get Lost
  • Timing Is Everything
  • Scratch
  • Drunk On Dark Sublime
  • Never Mind That Now
  • Live For The Touch
  • Narcosmicoma
  • Passing On The Stairs

• Queen of the Meadow - (2000)
  • Black Acres
  • Bayonne
  • Bend Your Mind
  • Tides of the Moon
  • Hearts Are Open Graves
  • Rope Of Weeds
  • Dream Within a Dream (Lyrics by Edgar Allan Poe)
  • Barely Recognize You
  • Fright Night
  • Queen of the Meadow
  • Cities Will Fall

• Bleed Your Cedar - (1996)
  • Lady in the Lake
  • Jack in the Box
  • Off or Out
  • Fountains on Fire
  • Anything You Like
  • Star
  • Parachute
  • Sugar Plum Arches
  • Rolling
  • Gracie Lyons
  • Mermaid

• EP - (1995)
  • Star
  • Diamonds All Day
  • Move Me
  • Get Rich

External links

• Elysian Fields Homepage
• A sampling of their music is at epitonic.com.
• myspace page [1]
• blackacres.net fansite
• Jennifer Charles / Elysian Fields Myspace.com Group