My Brightest Diamond — I Had Grown Wild

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My Brightest Diamond

I Had Grown Wild — EP

My Brightest Diamond — I Had Grown Wild — EP (May 19, 2015)

United States ^{My Brightest Diamond — I Had Grown Wild — EP (May 19, 2015)}
•    Shara will be playing at Primavera Festival on May 31st in Barcelona, at Lunar Festival on June 6th in Birmingham and at Field Day on June 7th in London.
Location: New York, NY
Album release: May 19, 2015
Record Label: Asthmatic Kitty Records
Duration:     23:17
Tracks:
1 Ceci Est Ma Main (Groundlift Remix)     3:53
2 Say What     3:23
3 Bronze Head     3:00
4 Apparition     5:46
5 This Is My Hand (Groundlift Remix) [Bonus Track]     3:29
6 Lover Killer (The Hood Internet Remix) [Bonus Track]     3:46
℗ 2015 Asthmatic Kitty Records
Review             April 24, 2015by KATIE PRESLEY • Bodies matter. Judith Butler named a book (and built a career) after the idea. Marina Abramovic, to prove the point, held hers still for anyone who would come, and drew a record–breaking audience as she did so. And they've become a physical and philosophical keystone for Shara Worden, now in her tenth year of performing as theatrical indie–pop act My Brightest Diamond. The urge to revel in embodiment and expression, Worden says, comes from a rewriting of early–learned lessons:
♠   I wanted to write dance music, but I realized that growing up in a "the–body–is sinful" Christian culture, along with the fact that as a young person I made a decision in music to lead with the mind ... I moved so far away from the body as a priority in my music–making.
♠   As her vision and persona have evolved, Worden has reversed that move. The video for her latest single, "This Is My Hand," which borders on synesthesia in its degree of sensuality, uses evocative fast cuts as Worden and others writhe and reckon with their own flesh, mouthing lyrics that list what a body is made of (hand, wrist, arm) and what it is capable of (gloom, flame, shadow) with equal assuredness. This is Worden singing a Whitman–esque song of herself, while illustrating the ways it's actually a song for all selves. It's a showing and telling of the cosmos contained in all bodies, separate but universal as they are.Worden sings with unfiltered empathy and warmth, particularly to herself, pushing her own limitations and writing her intentions (sometimes literally; see the last moments of this video) onto her skin. "This is My Hand" plays like the second half of a conversation started by "Be Brave," from 2011's All Things Will Unwind. "Be brave, dear one, be ye changed, or be ye undone," she sang to herself then. Here, the message has been received. Her need for self–encouragement has given way to a need for self–proclamation. (NPR)
REVIEW Le 15 April 2015 — By Chryde
•    I remember quite well the first review that made me go out and buy a record. It was in September 1994, in a French magazine. The writer was praising Grace, Jeff Buckley’s first album, and was declaring his love and admiration for admiration for it without boundary
•    “ “It’s pure magic, it’s mystery, it’s a tidy mess. This is too much… Too beautiful, too strong. A masterpiece. Guys like this guy depress me. They’re too good, gifted. Hats Off…” ”                                                © Credit Bernd Preiml
•    My Brightest Diamond opened her Soirée de Poche with a cover of “Gunshot Glitter”, one of Buckley’s lesser known songs, and my admiration for her equals the admiration this writer had for him (Buckley) some 20 years ago.
•    Except for this: Shara Worden doesn’t depress me. She’s the kind of human being who elevates, who pulls everything higher, the shoulders and the dreams, the looks and the smiles. She’s strong, powerful, rich with joy, beauty, wisdom. Her voice is loud, yet soft, the voice of a mother wolf always in tune, even if she has to lead a marching band, to jump and dance as she sings (not sure this last bit really works but I love everything leading up to it). Her songs are as precise, complex and clear as watchmaking. And yet they also are blocs of energy and emotion, reaching inside of you and bringing you to tears. Give her a guitar and a pedal; put her with a quartet or a marching band; a floor tom or a kazoo, or leave her with nothing at all save her voice, and she’ll knock you out.
•    We knew she’d be the perfect guest for a Soirée de Poche, however she exceeded our expectations. She started the show in a bedroom and ended it in the kitchen. She had us doing weird arms choregraphies, wearing owl masks and singing choruses, and building a cocoon around her. She danced like crazy, she played three instruments at once, and even sang a stupid and fun eurodance karaoke at the end of the set.
•    Above all, she offered us a rare moment of beauty, the French version of “This is My Hand”, and its delicate dance in the middle of the small crowd. Every time we film her, Shara Worden leaves us with an everlasting souvenir. We will cherish all of them, and continue to dig for more of these diamonds.
•    I Had Grown Wild is the final EP in a series of three releases that started last year with the EP None More Than You.
•    The EP, which will be released May 19 here on Asthmatic Kitty Records. The 6–song EP also features a version of the single in French, “Ceci Est Ma Main,” as well as two new songs, “Say What” and “Bronze Head.”
•    Says Shara Worden (aka My Brightest Diamond): “What is interesting about any remix is that by changing the instruments, and even the language, the meaning of the song takes on a multi–dimensional aspect, like staring at an object from a different angle, you see it in a new way. The form has not changed but the environment, the dressings, the costumery has altered your perception of it’s meaning. To sing ‘This Is My Hand,’ a song about the embracing of one’s own body, means something different in this time in history when there have been so many recent tragedies, where innocent people have had their lives taken from them in acts of violence and racism in both America and France. Today this is not only a song of self–embrace, but also one about the inherent right of all people to maintain freedom in their own bodies.”
•    In celebration of the release, My Brightest Diamond will perform at several festivals this spring and summer, including Barcelona’s Primavera Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival.
•    We’ll be opening up a limited edition translucent blue preorder within just a few days. :: http://asthmatickitty.com/
•    Shara will be playing at Primavera Festival on May 31st in Barcelona, at Lunar Festival on June 6th in Birmingham and at Field Day on June 7th in London. :: http://en.blogotheque.net/
Biography
•    Mixing elements of opera, cabaret, chamber music, and rock, My Brightest Diamond was the project of singer/songwriter/multi–instrumentalist Shara Worden. The daughter of a National Accordion Championship–winning father and a mother who was an organist for their Pentecostal church, Worden grew up in Ypsilanti, Michigan, listening to gospel, jazz, and classical music and performing in the church choir. She studied opera at the University of North Texas' music program, and after graduation, moved to New York City to continue her vocal studies. In N.Y.C., she became as involved in the world of underground rock as she was in the realms of classical music, becoming inspired by the likes of Antony and the Johnsons and Nina Nastasia and their intimate performances at venues such as Tonic, the Living Room, and the Knitting Factory. Worden began writing her own material, which had one foot in her classical training and the other in the avant rock she was discovering.
•    She began performing and recording as Awry, gathering a supporting group of musicians playing everything from wine glasses to wind chimes, and eventually added a string quartet after studying and collaborating with Australian composer Padma Newsome. She released The Orange Album and Quiet B–Sides in 2001, and a remix album in 2003. After meeting fellow transplanted Michiganian Sufjan Stevens, she became one of his Illinoisemakers and took a hiatus from her own work to perform on his Illinois tour as cheerleading captain. When the tour was over, Worden renamed her project My Brightest Diamond and set to work on two albums: A Thousand Shark's Teeth, a collection of songs performed with a string quartet, and Bring Me the Workhorse, a more rock–oriented set that was released on Stevens' Asthmatic Kitty in summer 2006. My Brightest Diamond toured with Stevens that fall in support of the album. Early the following year, the remix album Tear It Down, which featured contributions from Lusine and Gold Chains, arrived. My Brightest Diamond's second album, 2008's A Thousand Shark's Teeth, was originally planned as a piece for a string quartet, but eventually included 20 players and drew on influences such as the works of Maurice Ravel and Tom Waits. Returning to her Detroit roots, My Brightest Diamond took inspiration from the Motor City's ups and downs for All Things Will Unwind. The album, released in fall 2011, featured songs composed for the acclaimed yMusic chamber ensemble. Worden resurfaced in July 2014 with the None More Than You EP, a precursor to that fall's full–length This Is My Hand, which boasted influences ranging from Top 40 pop hits to her experiences appearing in experimental director Matthew Barney's film The River of Fundament.
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