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Track Listing
01. Tribe
02. Sound
03. I Am A River
04. Change
05. Early Morning (instrumental)
06. Out There
07. Dead Of Night
08. Star Of Doolin (instrumental)
09. Homeless
10. Lebanon
11. Peace Rains
12. Beara (instrumental) |
TRIBE - a collaboration with Simon O'Reilly
album reviews >>
Interview with Luka Bloom on video
> FaceCulture Online Magazine - 15 May 2007
FaceCulture spoke to Luka Bloom about Groningen and Utrecht,
growing up, his parents, the death of his father, playing guitar, writing
songs, being alone and happy, moments of magic, his obsesson in
finishing songs, the new album Tribe, Simon O'Reilly, Cafe del Mar,
Air, his sound, making a record, songs on the album Tribe, comparing
people, proud of other cultures, homeless people and lots more.
Luka even plays the song Tribe!
www.faceculture.nl/lukabloom
22-06-2007 - Radio 1 :: Luka goes electric
Interview with Luka Bloom by Wouter Mattelin
multiblog.vrt.be/exitplus/luka-goes-electric
PensEyeView.com
It all starts with a pen, paper and a vision....
In late 2006, Richie Frieman put pen to paper and developed PensEyeView.com.
PensEyeView.com showcase a different and unique artist, musician, painter, visionary, etc.
every 48 hours. The featured person(s) will be interviewed using twenty questions
(aka - the "XXQs") and have their work displayed for the world to see.
July 22-23, 2007: Luka Bloom
Read his XXQs to find out more >>
Beat 102 103 - Irish Beats (Waterford/Ireland)
Saturday, 15th September 2007
Interview with Luka Bloom by Rob O'Connor
Montag, 24. September 2007, 11:00:00 | beat102103
He may have been on tour in Germany, but Rob got Luka Bloom
on the blower to chat about his fantastic new album "Tribe".
A few jibes in there about rugby too...
(...and there is also some news about the next album!!)
The interview is available as a podcast and you can download it from their website
www.beat102103.com/beat-podcasting/irish-beats/interview-with-luka-bloom.html
www.beat102103.com
release dates in other territories:
Holland and Belgium on June 18 with
V2 Records
Germany, Austria and Switzerland on June 22 with
Skip Records
USA on July 31 with Cooking Vinyl USA
Ireland on September 7 with Big Sky Records
and UK on September 10 with Proper Music Distribution
24 Apr 2007 - latest news from Skip Records:
Irish singer/songwriter Luka Bloom will release his brandnew album 'Tribe',
a collaboration with Simon O'Reilly, before the summer break. Of course
the album will also be offered later this year in the limited 180 g vinyl series.
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Track Listing
01. Primavera
02. First Light Of Spring
03. Innocence
04. Venus
05. Miracle Cure
06. Peace On Earth (instrumental)
07. Gypsy Music
08. City Of Chicago
09. June
10. Salvador
11. No Matter Where You Go, There You Are
12. Thank You For Bringing Me Here
13. Larry Redican's Bow (instrumental)
14. Doing The Best I Can (Bonus Track: Cooking Vinyl)
15. I Am Not At War With Anyone (Bonus Track: Cooking Vinyl) |
I hear the long grass shuffling in the June breeze
Smell the lavender and the catmint leaves
Everything comes and goes like the tides
Life is celebrations and goodbyes
Ah but June, I love the way you pull me in
June, I love your heat upon my skin
June, I love the way you pull me in
To your midsummer feeling
Luka Bloom |
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Hybrid Magazine - music reviews - May 2006
Luka Bloom - Innocence
Cooking Vinyl
When something happens that threatens to end your musical career, it leaves
the soul questioning life's purpose. But when you struggle through that hard
time, recording one of your finest and most tender records in the meantime,
and then make a full recovery, there is only one thing to do: celebrate!
Luka Bloom seems to be celebrating his re-emergence to full health on his
newest record, Innocence. All the doubts and introspection on
last year's Before Sleep Comes have come full circle to end in a brilliant
commemoration of life and rebirth on Innocence.
'Primavera' begins the album with an eloquent foreshadowing of the
themes to come, which rolls nicely into the lilting softness of 'First Light
Of Spring'. These two songs set the tone for the entire album, building
on the tender benevolence of the songs on Before Sleep Comes and fleshing
out the ideas of a wondrous resurrection of the world from the sleep of winter.
By the time 'Innocence' begins, there is a low, mellow mood already
built that makes the soul wholly receptive for the insidious splendor of Luka's
lyrical genius. "I remember the taste / of the first kiss by the river / and
the promises we'd keep / forever and ever... and I choose innocence / after
my tears."
'June' is another fine example of the rebirth theme that weaves its
way throughout this album with such a delicate and deliberate feel, bringing
to light the true feeling of joy that Luka seems to have found in his
ability to once more play music as he'd like. And dig the groovy Van
Morrison-esque feel that the song gives off - an instant classic.
Alternately, Innocence is interspersed with some darker and more pressing
themes, as well. 'No Matter Where You Go, There You Are' deals with
the story of a man outcast from his own land and how he finally comes to find
some happiness in the sorrow of a foreign land and its music. 'Miracle Cure'
finds the songwriter entreating the world to step back and realize the most
direct path to happiness and peace is simply forgiving those that trespass
against us. Luka has finally found time to record his classic 'City Of Chicago'
on Innocence. After many years of hearing Christy Moore playing the
song, it is a simple joy to hear it from the mouth of the man who wrote it.
And the highly personally political 'I Am Not At War' makes a strong
statement that the world's leaders would be well advised to stop and think
about themselves.
But ultimately, everything comes back to the simple happiness that Luka
obviously finds in music and the world around him. And nowhere is this
displayed more prominently than on the amazingly complex 'Gypsy Music'.
There is a wondrous amount of joy that inexplicably fills the yearning of
Luka's voice and his rhythmic guitar strumming. But the apex of Innocence's
beauty lies in the amazing depth of the wonderful 'Thank You For Bringing
Me Here'. This song, possibly more than any other of his career, accurately
captures Luka's ability to flesh out a simple observation into one of his
most heartrending and magnificent songs. The lyrics have an almost
sing-songy feel, but a depth and power that belie their simple
pronouncement.
Innocence is far more than simply a ray of hope and celebratory joy in the
life of Luka Bloom. This brilliant collection of songs transcends all of his
earlier works, and simply lays out for the world why Luka is truly one of
the world's finest songwriters, now or ever.
David DeVoe
www.hybridmagazine.com
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Luka Bloom still manages to keep the best of company too. Kenneth Edge's soprano saxophone and
clarinet conjure a mood reminiscent of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. Ray Fean lends the subtlest of
percussion; Joe Csibi adds double bass and Pat Collins' fiddle roams free and wide.
Mohamed Bouhanna's derbouka adds the final essential ingredient that defines Bloom's
delight in Ireland's growing multiculturalism. And enmeshed in all the songs, as well
as in the two instrumental interludes of Innocence, 'Peace On Earth'
and 'Larry Redican's Bow' is the spirit of a musician who's long let
go of the cocky defiance of youth, who bears the scars and celebrations of
daily life with a comfort born of the same regrets, delights and minor triumphs that we all share. 'No Matter Where
You Go, There You Are' sums it up sweetly, on the back of Bloom's trademark uncompromising guitar lines:
"No matter where you go, there are you / So don't let go of what you
know to be true".
Innocence Press Release |
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latest news
05-05-2006 - Info from Koch Entertainment, USA
LUKA BLOOM - INNOCENCE
Three tracks from Luka Bloom's latest album 'Innocence'
have been picked to be a part of Starbucks' in-store play
beginning this month! > www.starbucks.com
13-10-2005 - Info from Skip Records, Germany
LUKA BLOOM - INNOCENCE - 180 g Vinyl Limited Edition
In time for the German and Swiss tour dates in November SKIP RECORDS
will continue its collection of 180 g vinyl limited editions of Luka Bloom,
this time his latest album "Innocence".
Collectors have to hurry up, as the edition is strictly limited to 1000 pieces.
The vinyls are available in good record shops, on tour in Germany and
Switzerland and of course directly at our website: > www.skiprecords.com
04-10-2005 - Info from
Lukabloom.com
INNOCENCE will be released in America on Cooking Vinyl Records
March 21st 2006 with 2 bonus tracks!
Product information:
Innocence seems like a strange title for Luka Bloom's tenth studio album.
However, Innocence is an album that could easily be mistaken as an
accomplished debut. Bloom's lyrics are so insightful and fresh that you'd be
forgiven for mistaking him as a young and disillusioned twenty-something,
instead of a 50 year old who has been making music for 36 years. Musically,
Innocence is just as simple and static. There's an unrivalled tenderness to
Luka Bloom's enchanting, earnest songwriting - his musical and lyrical
delivery possesses that special charm. His deft, delicate touch on the
six-string and distinguishable Irish lilt in his honeyed vocals draws you in
immediately with the heartfelt opener 'Primavera', from which the ensuing
mood is set. And of course, there's a gentle dose of mellow instrumentals on
Innocence to round out the album.
The US version contains two exclusive
bonus tracks that are not on the UK version - 'Doing The Best I Can' and
'I Am Not At War With Anyone'. Bloom seems to always manage a sense of
freshness with anything he puts his mind, voice and hand to, and Innocence beautifully
captures the emotions of these purposeful messages by a master of his game.
www.kochdistribution.com
Galway Advertiser - Entertainment - Thursday 26 May 2005
Changing houses works wonders for Luka Bloom
By KERNAN ANDREWS
Moving to America gave Luka Bloom the confidence to find his own musical voice. Moving to a new
house in Kildare has helped him write the best albums of his career. The reason? "I'm allergic
to nostalgia," he says.
..."I think I have been a late developer," Luka says modestly, though he admits his most
recent work is among his strongest. "Something has shaken in me in the last two years. I decided
to simplify the guitar and focus on the lyrics and get across what it is that really motivates me and
moves me. I'm going to attribute some of that to the house I live in now in Co Kildare on the outskirts
of the Bog of Allen."
How did moving house affect his work? "It's a practical thing of being able to write something
without disturbing other people," he says. "I lived for 27 years in city centres and in an
apartment there would be people on the other side of every wall and it was difficult to do your work
without upsetting someone. When I lived in Dublin I would rent a cottage in the Burren and work there
for four weeks on the songs but I don't have to do that anymore. Now I can go to the Burren and
visit friends and relax. I can now do my work where I live and that has made a big impact and I feel
there is a freshness to my work."
It is appropriate perhaps that the intimate surroundings of home and the familiarity of the Kildare
countryside is where Innocence was recorded. It's an album that celebrates the joy of simple
pleasures - a celebration of how the ordinary in life has a special quality that can be more
meaningful than the seemingly 'important' events.
"I would regard that as a perfect analysis of what drives me and motivates me," Luka replies.
"Writing songs for me is about making the ordinary extraordinary. People live such fast,
materialistic lives that we lose touch with the essential magic of the ordinary.....
I don't believe music can change the world in a global sense," says Luka, "but I absolutely
believe it can transform an individual life and can articulate our experiences, sorrows, joys
and I think that is the challenge of this particular songwriter."
The most challenging song on Innocence, and perhaps the finest Luka has ever written, is the north African
flavoured 'No Matter Where You Go, There You Are' - recounting the tale of a Muslim who,
exiled from Algeria, makes his home in Galway. What led Luka to write this song?
"On the album that song is beside 'City Of Chicago' and that's deliberate,"
Luka replies. "'City Of Chicago' articulates some of the hurt and isolation
people who left Ireland and emigrated to Boston, Chicago, and London felt. Now we've gone from that
situation to the reverse where people are coming to Ireland in search of the same life we sought.
I wanted to write a personal song, a positive song, not an anti-Conor Lenihan song. I wanted
to highlight the talent and resources emigrants bring and I used as an example a friend of mine
from Algeria called Mohamed. He now lives in northern Holland. He doesn't live in Galway
but he has been to Galway. I used his experience for coming to Europe as background for
the story I wanted to tell of him making his way from Algeria to Galway and it's a song I like
to sing in Galway."
www.galwayadvertiser.ie
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Track Listing
01. My Singing Bird
02. Before Sleep Comes
03. She Moved Through The Fair
04. I'll Walk Beside You
05. Camomile
06. Be Still Now
07. Nora
08. The Water Is Wide
09. She Sings Her Songs With Open Eyes
10. Salt Water (Bonus Track: Shock Records) |
album reviews >> |
Before Sleep Comes is available at www.lukabloom.com (Big Sky Records)
IrishMusicMail.com
and Claddagh Records in Ireland
Fnac in Belgium & France
Plato and Bertus Distribution in the Netherlands
record companies - release dates
Skip Records, Germany, Austria & Switzerland - 19 July 2004
Shock Records, Australia - 2 August 2004
Bar/None Records, USA - 21 September 2004
Before Sleep Comes is a special CD, designed to give people something
calm to listen to before going to bed at night. It is 28 minutes long, 9 tracks, two of which
are instrumental. I got the idea for the CD in the Summer, when my tendonitis was bad,
and I was playing soothing little things on my Spanish guitar. I grew to love this time each
day; wrote some soft songs; decided to record it in The Old Mill nearby.
It's a special project, and I hope you like the result.
Luka Bloom
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There is a moment of surrender
Just before sleep comes
I turn over my life's business
To the God of the Setting Sun
Sweet, sweet dreams...
Luka Bloom |
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LUKA BLOOM: 'BEFORE SLEEP COMES'
9 Songs For Insomniacs
'Necessity is the mother of invention!'
Originally recorded by Luka as a unique release to sell on his website and at concerts,
'Before Sleep Comes' might not exactly be his fully-blown new studio album, but it is new
Luka material nonetheless... The album features 9 new tracks, together with an Australia-only
bonus track called 'Salt Water', specifically written for his Australian fans and inspired by his
love of our country.
www.shock.com.au
Salt Water Sound Sample - Windows Media Player [30 sec]
Hybrid Magazine - music reviews - April 2005
Luka Bloom
Before Sleep Comes
Bar None Records
Adversity can sometimes lead to great changes and personal growth. Before Sleep Comes
is definitely such a case. Luka Bloom was having a bout of severe tendonitis and couldn't play his
normal steel string acoustics. So, being the ingenious Irishman that he is, he picked up his nylon
string and started playing away, delving into the soft sounds that are inherent to that instrument.
Upon realizing how much fun he was having exploring this tender, quieter style of songs, he
decided he would gift the public with a record of the songs. Over the course of a few cold and
windy nights, Luka sat at Old Mill Studios and set the tunes to tape, just him and his nylon string
guitar. Thus was born Before Sleep Comes.
www.hybridmagazine.com/reviews/0405/lukabloom.shtml
Celtic Connection - CD Reviews - April 2004
BEFORE SLEEP COMES - LUKA BLOOM
Big Sky Records
SWEET DREAMS
As a child, who didn't love being snuggled in bed with a loved one to sing you to sleep? The delicious feeling of hanging on
the cusp of sleep until the music carried you over. As adults, we now have a champion of insomniacs everywhere in Luka Bloom
and his latest release, 'Before Sleep Comes'. While most performers would be offended if someone fell
asleep listening to their music, Bloom expects you to!
Frets Magazine - The complete acoustic guitar package - Fall 2004
Luka Bloom On Recording Before Sleep Comes
By Michael Molenda
Although the very thought tends to piss off studio engineers in a major way,
the most transcendent and evocative recordings often have nothing to do with
high - class microphones, expensive preamps and compressors, vintage mixing
consoles, digital-audio manipulations, or other technological hoo-ha. Nope.
The performances that shoot through your eardrums and into your heart and
soul are usually documents of pure emotion - imperfect little moments in time
where an artist was touched by angels and the result was captured in a form
that could be shared with others.
Life intervenes in the process, as well, because an artist can't unleash an
emotionally stirring performance if he or she is a blank slate (or in a
blank state). In this creative stew of existential circumstance, Luka Bloom
was truly blessed with misfortune and inspiration as he recorded Before
Sleep Comes...
The sessions were completed in two evenings - with a total of approximately
eight hours of recording - and the tracking phase cost Bloom around $200.
For mixing, Bloom took the Pro Tools files to his old friend, Brian Masterson -
the brains behind the very famous Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin.
"Brian has been involved in my last four or five records, so there was a
certain comfort zone in bringing him into the project," says Bloom.
"I told him, 'I want the room, I want the wind, and I want the floorboards.
I want this recording to be very imperfect, but I want it to sound lovely. I want
it to sound like people are present in the room, and they can feel the
atmosphere of the room, and the night, and the lateness of the thing.' He
was a bit shocked at first, but he totally got into it. I just told him to
put on his 1960s ears and things would be fine [laughs]. And he gave
me back something beautiful."
Never planning to seriously release the project-as he felt it would appeal
to "only 200 or so insomniacs" - Bloom stuck a few audio files on
his Web site and offered the sessions for sale. The cosmic joke was that
he immediately sold 9,000 copies of this "fragile, raw, and delicate
work"...
"This record is the most painless thing I've ever done, and there's
something about the simplicity of it that's really connecting with people,"
he says. "And it has taught me something, as well. You see, I'm a very
organic kind of guy in the sense that I recognize a tune, I write a song, I
tell a story, I sit on a stage, and I deliver a performance. And, somehow,
when I'd come to make a record, I'd feel the need to dress everything up
and 'produce' it. But now, I have this imperfect little jewel telling me
that the best thing I can be in the world is myself - no matter how simple
and intuitive my work may be."
www.fretsmag.com |
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