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Piano Noir

Piano Noir

"You could read and enjoy the story in silence and listen to the record without reading, though consuming both simultaneously produced a movie-like experience." –Analog Planet

After reading a profile of renowned writer Douglas Kennedy, we reached out to see if he might be interested in writing an original work for Newvelle. By the end of the week, with a quick breakfast meeting, Douglas agreed. And we quickly realized the resulting piece required its own frame of original compositions.

Ten months later, we had a stellar band in our regular studio in the Lower East Side to record an original set of music inspired by the story, featuring Elan Mehler, Michael Blake, Jason Palmer, Simón Willson, and Dor Herskovits. With artwork designed by Case Simmons and Austin Lynch.

Album Facts

Catalog NV101
Format 180-gram clear vinyl LP
Jacket Tip-on gatefold jacket

Recording Detail

Recording Marc Urselli, East Side Sound
New York, New York, USA
Mixing Marc Urselli, East Side Sound
New York, New York, USA
Mastering Alex DeTurk, The Bunker Studio
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Pressing MPO
Villaines-La-Juhel, France

Track Listing

SIDE A

  1. "Christopher's Place (Piano Noir Theme)"
  2. "How To Be Alone"
  3. "L'Amour Fraternel"
  4. "Call Your Own"
  5. "Ms. Pedantic"
  6. "Rabbit & Bear"

SIDE B

  1. "Oscar's Hideaway"
  2. "Crazy Ivan
  3. "Waltz for Shelley"
  4. "Any Place But Here"
  5. "Christopher's Place (Piano Noir Theme)"

Liner Notes

by Douglas Kennedy

“She was a bike messenger. I met her because, on that December night, it was she who delivered weed to my apartment. Her name was Shelley. A name which the ageing hipster in me always responded to, as it conjured up an earlier girlfriend who shared the same faux-poetic name. I met the first Shelley around the time we were about to kick Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. She dressed in long-flowing diaphanous skirts and India-pilgrimage white linen shirts. She dreamed of being an ‘abstract expressionist choreographer’ - whatever that was - and fulfilled all those longings I had back then for the ethereal bohemian girl of my dreams. Last I heard she was a divorced accountant living in that capital of depressed mundanity: Hartford, Connecticut. Such is the way of life when you decide you have no choice but to play the American conformist game.

"I should talk. Once upon a time I was going to play jazz piano and become the next Bill Evans...”

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