Tuesday 29 October 2013

[Press Release] Half The Universe (is missing) / An insider's view - from the outside

London artist reacts to the trauma of 22.07.11 and gives away a
song for Norway.

Neal Hoffmann is a London based singer/songwriter who, after touring in
Norway with Ephemera in 2003, fell in love with the country and its people. He
has since been back several times and thinks of himself as "an insider on the
outside."
He managed to teach himself Norwegian by reading Norwegian books and
articles on NRK.

When the events of July 22nd 2011 unfolded, he was following the
developments online and, like thousands of others, could not believe what
was happening in Norway.

A lot has happened since. People have struggled with it in their various and
different ways. Neal did what songwriters do, he wrote a song.

He wanted to talk about the event but not about the perpetrator. He imagines,
that if you lose someone close, a part of your world disappears. The pain
cannot be put into words. It cannot be explained. An artist, however, can try to
approach it with his/her own view and understanding and see what will
happen. What happened in Neal's case, was a song called, 'Half the
Universe (is missing)'.

The song was recorded at Neal's house in London, using a Mac, guitars, reed
organs, basses and pianos. Drummer Jari Salminen recorded the drums in his
studio in Finland. Ephemera, (the lovely Christine Sandtorv, Jannicke Larsen
and Ingerlise Størksen) recorded the backing vocals at Tinnitus Recording
Studio in Bergen using their own intuition and creativity to record what felt
right to them.

Neal wrote the string arrangement, which was then recorded by Antonia
Pagulatos (violin and viola) and Celine Barry (cello) in London.

The mixing session was completed recently and Miles Showell was entrusted
to put the finishing touches to it by mastering the song at Abbey Road studios
in London. The reputation of the studio is, of course, legendary.

Half the Universe (is missing) will be released on 05.11.13, as a free
download and on various streaming services, including Spotify and WiMP.

The song can be heard here:
https://soundcloud.com/amphibic/half-the-universe-is-missing
The whole thing would not have possible without a little help from these
friends. Big thank you goes to:


Ephemera are a Bergen based band, consisting of Christine Sandtorv,
Ingerlise Størksen and Jannicke Larsen. They have won the
Spellemannprisen (Norway's Grammy) in 2002 and 2003 as well as the
Alarmprisen in 2003.

Antonia Pagulatos has played for George Harrison, Damon Albarn, Madness,
Tom Jones, Mark Ronson, Duran Duran and Leona Lewis.

Celine Barry, is an Irish cellist, she has played with Amphibic, The Divine
Comedy and the Tonic Fold and performs with various London orchestras and
quartets.

Jari Salminen works as a drummer in Helsinki. He plays with 'Poets of the
Fall' and various others.

Tinnitus Recording Studio is a recording studio in Bergen, run by Bjarte
Ludvigsen.

Josh von Staudach took time out and helped with some good ideas
concerning the arrangement.

Sascha Høvring took the picture of Neal in Bergen.

Additional info:
Neal Hoffmann's song 'Hungry Man', from Amphibic's second studio album,
was used on the American TV series, Switched at Birth.

Neal Hoffmann has recorded two albums for German Indie label Haldern Pop
Recordings. The albums were released with his band Amphibic, in 2004 and
2008. He has a current self produced EP called 'Fleetwood Road Session
Tasters' and is working towards releasing another album soon.

Contact:
Neal Hoffmann

Terje Øye


Press photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amphibic/