AMBRE CIEL SHARES NEW SINGLE FROM UPCOMING DEBUT ALBUM

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AMBRE CIEL’S DEBUT ALBUM, STILL, THERE IS THE SEA, OUT JUNE 6, 2025 VIA GONDWANA RECORDS

PRE–SAVE STILL, THERE IS THE SEA HERE

PERFORMING AT FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL DE JAZZ DE MONTRÉAL THIS SUMMER

Photo Credit : Lawrence Farfard // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Recently, Ambre Ciel announced her debut album, still, there is the sea, and shared its first single, “the sun, the sky”. Today, she shares “eau miroir”, a dreamy neo-classical pop movement co-produced with Pietro Amato (Patrick Watson) and orchestral arrangement assisted by Owen Pallett. ‘eau miroir’ conjures vivid images of sunlit reflected oceans. Piano melody ascends and descends like waves, to the lexical field of the lyrics, with vocals mirrored in perfect harmony. 

LISTEN / SHARE “eau miroir” HERE
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MORE ABOUT STILL, THERE IS THE SEA
Ambre Ciel is a composer, violinist, pianist and singer who hails from Montreal and is a purveyor of dreamy, expansive, spacious pop music. Ambre, who sings in both French and English, hails from a family of singers and artists. “I started my journey learning violin at six and began experimenting with pedal effects and looping melodies later on,” says Ciel. University followed with a focus on composition and recording. “That’s when I started exploring composing and songwriting more deeply—both the world of sounds in itself and songs built mostly with layers of violin and voice. It was also during this time that I returned to my ‘first’ instrument, the piano, which opened more harmonic possibilities.” 

For Ambre, her debut album, still, there is the sea, represents a beginning, a first and she says imperfect attempt to create this other world that was living in her mind. She has crafted a beautifully refined ‘pop album’ making a lot of space for strings arrangements and other acoustic instruments, as well as her own beautiful voice. “On a personal level, I was searching for silence. I had just finally moved to a quiet apartment in Montreal and for the first time, I had all the time and space to hear silence and create, being solitary and living in the intangible world of possibilities”. 

The enigmatic title of the album, still, there is the sea, came to Ambre when she realised that water was a subconscious but recurring theme throughout the album in terms of melodies and lyrics; “eau miroir” refers to how the water can be some kind of mirror, “cycle” embodies a cyclical, perpetual movement, “atlantis” refers to this inward looking quest and distancing from the world, “sometimes” has sounds from rain and storm, and refers to a storm happening inside someone’s thoughts. “The water element can be very thin, fragile, but it’s always in movement and can resemble a larger and massive current, expansive, and I wanted to move between instrumental and song with this fluidity and was interested in finding ways to create something that could still feel cohesive. It also reflects this entire season of solitude and silence, how to me creating music represents this access to an underworld closer to the realm of dreams, that can be deep, surreal, rich and very grounding too.”

WATCH / SHARE “THE SUN, THE SKY” HERE
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The songs and compositions on still, there is the sea also aim to offer a way of coping with what is going on in the world, an escape from the horrors of war and climate change. An attempt to create beauty and hopefully offer escapism and to engage with the world in a way that is meaningful and authentic. “Music is mysterious and powerful,” explains Ciel. “You don’t always know how you feel and then just by improvising at the piano there’s a transfer operating and the opaqueness of your emotions translate in a music that can be as emotionally complex and inherently constructive.” 

While still, there is the sea is very much Ambre’s own personal statement and artistic vision as a composer, arranger and producer, Pietro Amato offered support and experience (and an extra pair of ears) as co-producer and Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy) gave assistance with the orchestral arrangements Ambre wrote for the FAMES Skopje Studio Orchestra conducted by Sasho Tatarchevski. And deeply sensitive musicians such as percussionist Stefan Schneider (Bell Orchestre, The Luyas), clarinettist Guillaume Bourque and a string trio made of Marilou Lepage, Sebastian Gonzalez Mora, and Julien Siino all brought their unique voices to the record.

PRE–SAVE STILL, THERE IS THE SEA HERE

PERFORMANCE DATES
June 30 - Festival International de Jazz de Montréal




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STILL, THERE IS THE SEA TRACKLIST
01 the sun, the sky
02 eau miroir
03 cycle
04 atlantis
05 dream - mirage
06 sometimes
07 pièce no. 8
08 fragment of

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GEORGIA HARMER HOLDS UP A MIRROR IN “TAKE IT ON”

THE TORONTO SINGER-SONGWRITER SHARES NEW SINGLE, OUT NOW VIA ARTS & CRAFTS

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Photo Credit : Nora Rosenthal  // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, Georgia Harmer follows recent singles “Can We Be Still” and “Little Light” with "Take It On”: a deep introspection in the form of a slow-burning anthem, with lyrics that untangle her own embedded patterns of thinking - about the ways she’s seen herself over time, in conflict, and in relation to the emotions of others. Her gentle, raw voice carries the song from its bare acoustic beginnings to its softly powerful peak - a refrain of the words “I don’t want to behave,” an ode to her too-careful, younger self. Georgia’s habit of taking on conflict, of being swept into storms, inspires the personal growth traced by the gorgeous arc of this song.

“‘Take It On’ is about the way I see myself, and the ways I have assumed others see me,” says Harmer. “It’s about the emotional labour of taking on conflict around me - and creating it internally - sometimes for the sake of having something to solve, to worry about, and noticing how that habit has weighed me down. This song is me holding a mirror up and being very honest about what I see.”

The song arrives with a music video directed, shot, and edited by Nora Rosenthal, featuring Georgia singing “Take It On,” performing the song as if she’s confiding in a trusted friend, on a sunset walk across all of the bridges in the city.

WATCH / SHARE “TAKE IT ON” HERE
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MORE ABOUT GEORGIA HARMER
With wisdom and poise, Georgia Harmer arrived with the 2022 release of her acclaimed debut album Stay In Touch, an emotionally resonant collection of songs that articulates the ways in which even the most fleeting experiences can forge bonds between strangers, create families out of friends, and one by one form the joys and sorrows that make up a life. Spanning intimate folk and strummy country to sophisticated jazz and pop-kissed rock, Harmer and her band created musical landscapes that live up to the lyrical richness of her songwriting, and quickly established Georgia as a voice to transcend eras and genres with her ability to purely enchant. Georgia’s unforgettable voice is singular, gliding along a range of emotion from soft distorted rockers to bucolic ballads with windswept ease. Already a seasoned performer, Georgia has toured alongside City And Colour, Broken Social Scene, Bahamas, The Paper Kites, Haley Blais, Dan Mangan, Basia Bulat, Tim Baker, The Ballroom Thieves, and more.

RECENT PRAISE FOR GEORGIA HARMER
"Can We Be Still" continues to show off Harmer's astute songwriting, especially by expanding on her heartfelt odes to friendship. The new track builds off a steadily strummed riff and drum beat as Harmer illustrates an evolving timeline between two friends”.
CBC Music on “Can We Be Still”

The rosy glow of Harmer's voice holds the collapsing tenses and inevitable changes together atop a gently winding melody, led by acoustic guitar strums and a percussive heartbeat. Exclaim! On “Can We Be Still”

LISTEN / SHARE “LITTLE LIGHT” HERE
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WATCH / SHARE “CAN WE BE STILL” HERE
BUY / STREAM “CAN WE BE STILL” HERE

LISTEN TO GEORGIA HARMER CHAT WITH TOM POWER ABOUT “CAN WE BE STILL” HERE

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DAN MANGAN FINDS REFUGE IN “DIMINISHING RETURNS” FROM UPCOMING ALBUM, NATURAL LIGHT

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Today, Dan Mangan shares "Diminishing Returns", a tender reckoning with the end of the world as we once knew it. Against the din of #UniversalDoom, Mangan finds refuge in something quieter: love in the early light. In Mangan’s own words, at the higher registers of his emotional range: ‘I have seen your body bending with the morning light ascending / And I will die defending our diminishing returns’. Groovy and pensive, on “Diminishing Returns” – the latest single from his upcoming album, Natural Light (June 6) – Dan’s sardonic wit holds tight to the notion of love in contempt of our troubled times.

Of the latest single from his upcoming album, Natural Light, Mangan continues: "Inflation of panic, inflation of outrage. Every comment or like is worth less and less. The disaster looming feels real, but not quite as real as the afternoon light reflecting from the skin of my naked wife."

WATCH / SHARE “DIMINISHING RETURNS” HERE
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MORE ABOUT NATURAL LIGHT
Natural Light is Mangan’s return to folk music’s classic underpinnings of political resistance, and songs founded on building connection. No longer the hopeful young upstart or a stubborn folk-punk, Mangan’s familiar voice emerges to articulate our troubled times with tenderness and humour. Love songs about a planet on the brink of collapse. Campfire songs for a world on fire.

Before a single note of Dan Mangan’s 7th LP Natural Light was recorded he listened through a series of song demos and sincerely considered the title Schminger Schmongwriter. After years of rolling his eyes at the genre, there is poetry in accepting that the two best words to describe him may in fact be “singer” and “songwriter”.

In context, the nod to Harry Nilsson’s landmark album Nilsson Schmilsson is not out of place. There’s a feeling of timelessness to Natural Light in the curiosity, the wit, and the playfulness in Dan’s voice, through his words, and the vibrancy of the music. The analog patina and subtle reminders that this tender, funny and devastating work was made by humans together in a room. Mangan’s newest offering bears the the poise of a modern classic, seeded by Dan’s singular lyricism and forged unexpectedly by four best buds over six days in a cabin in the woods.

WATCH / SHARE “CUT THE BRAKES” HERE
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There is something fitting in Mangan hitting this high watermark at this stage of his life. You can trace the chapters of his story in the fabric of Natural Light. You’ll find remnants of the tenacious young artist who booked tours of Europe via Myspace in the mid 2000s. The emergent songwriter who hibernated into fatherhood just as arena-folk exploded in the early 2010s. The genre-bender who has subtly challenged his audience with each album, tracing a unique trajectory of confronting and eclipsing his own art. Over two decades, Mangan has managed an enviably strong creative ethic, and his integrity as both a singer and songwriter has only strengthened with age. The big picture cohesiveness of Natural Light harkens to a pre-streaming, album-focused sensibility. Songs bleed together through focused transitions and overlapping interludes. Mangan’s lyrics act as gondolier for the journey, reassuring the listener that it’s cool to care. Dan sings for his kids, for his wife, and for a society in existential crisis. 

Following several studio-centric albums with esteemed producer Drew Brown (Radiohead, Beck), Dan secluded himself deep in the woods of southern Ontario for a week with long-time bandmates Jason Haberman, Mike O’Brien and Don Kerr. They had intended to workshop existing songs, maybe write some new ones, and generally impose zero pressure to accomplish much at all. They pooled recording gear and turned Haberman’s rustic cottage (coined SOUVENIR) into a makeshift studio.

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“This entire album feels like one big happy accident. A gift from the ether,” says Mangan from his home in Vancouver. “Even if it was never to be released, I can’t fully articulate how grateful I am to have had such a cosmic and charged creative experience with these three people I love so dearly. We were completely locked in. I get choked up just thinking about it.”

The evening they arrived, Dan introduced the band to a song he’d written for his sons - a meandering stream of consciousness lamenting how their modern adolescences might pose challenges from which he cannot spare them. Lightning struck and in three quick takes, the framework for the song was complete, and the table had been set. “It Might Be Raining” was the first song recorded, is the first song on Natural Light, and was the catalyst for six days of jubilant creative frenzy. Between lake jumps and egg scrambles, the crew brought to life 13 songs, many of which had been stewing in Dan’s head for years.

Though these songs were written over the last half-decade, the timing of Natural Light feels urgent. The power and the beauty of this music, as well as its sadness, are imbued with the present political and social zeitgeist. If there exists a need for creative voices to cut through the world’s deafening static with eloquence and honesty, this work is an undeniable candidate.

Dan’s voice and songs have the power to unite and silence a concert hall. A centrepiece of his lyrical prowess is “Soapbox”, a Guthrie-esq rip into “the lie” of modern society. Though he considers it his preachiest song, Mangan’s determined stanzas unfold like a close friend helping to untangle the complexities of our collective struggle. “I hate that, so often, the thing that is most infuriating about society is also the hardest to explain,” he says.

The band’s contributions are paramount to Natural Light’s charm and vitality, effortlessly elevating Mangan’s offerings without ever getting in the way. The recordings capture the foursome’s brotherly intuitions, as each note feels responsive, spontaneous, and serendipitous. Jason, Mike and Don buoyantly propel Dan’s melancholic lyrics with assurance and whimsy - a glorious juxtaposition perhaps best demonstrated by Natural Light’s first single “Melody”. Clarinets and slide guitars dance like drunken fools to his elegy about unrequited love.

All four musicians are credited as producers on the album. While O’Brien did the heavy lifting on lead guitar and Kerr on drums, the whole cast shuffled between instruments frequently as the recordings took shape. Minimal time was given to working out “parts”, and they allowed first impulses to direct the process, tracking the songs together “live off the floor”. Back in their respective cities and studios, the foursome continued to hone the recordings over the following months, adding subtle overdubs such as horns, strings and woodwinds.

What cannot be understated here is the creative input from bassist Jason Haberman, who engineered the recordings and even took the photos adorning the LP’s front and back covers. Jason also mixed the album from his Toronto studio. Though several other renowned engineers were initially considered, every step of the process had been intimately tied to the quartet's experience at the cabin, and it felt important to keep the project in the family, so to speak.

Natural Light is a natural resolution for Mangan as a scene-survivor. Dan has emerged as a politically-conscious family man with the maturity and wherewithal to articulate our troubled times with tenderness, intelligence and humour. There is luck involved too - this perfect storm of creativity was not so much conjured as ridden like a wave by four friends with a century of collective experience making records.

Mangan has often described songwriting as a way to articulate his anxieties and unburden his mind. This particular collection of recordings explores the darkness of our time, but embraces the listener like a weighted blanket. Sewn into the fabric, in a secret language, are the words instructions for survival. Dan reminds us that the pain of living frees us. That there are those who leave a light on in case another needs to see. That the feeling will go on. That we should seek the natural light, and when we find it, bask in it like a cat.

MORE ABOUT DAN MANGAN
Dan Mangan is a two time JUNO Award-winning and three time Polaris Music Prize-nominated musician and songwriter. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with his wife and two sons. For decades, Dan has brought signature wit, sonic innovation and lyrical insight to the indie/folk community, garnering him a fiercely dedicated and deeply involved audience. He has played Glastonbury and Jimmy Kimmel Live, sold out Massey Hall and scored acclaimed soundtracks for television and feature film. In 2017, he co-founded Side Door, a community marketplace platform for the arts that seeks to democratize and decentralize the entertainment industry by connecting artists with alternative venue spaces.

PRE-ORDER & PRE-SAVE NATURAL LIGHT HERE

TOUR DATES  
Sept 25 - Calgary, AB - MacEwan Hall
Sept 26 - Edmonton, AB - Winspear Centre
Oct 1 - Victoria, BC - Royal Theatre
Oct 3 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre
Oct 10 - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall
Oct 11 - Ottawa, ON - Bronson Centre

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NATURAL LIGHT TRACKLIST
01 It Might Be Raining
02 Diminishing Returns
03 I Hated Love Songs
04 Contained Free (Interlude)
05 No Such Thing As Wasted Love
06 Melody
07 My Dreams Are Getting Weirder
08 Soapbox
09 Cut The Brakes
10 For Him
11 Sound The Alarm
12 Proximity
13 Hit The Wall

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