NASHVILLE ||
MAY 6, 2016
FR: ALEXANDRA GREENBERG/VANESSA LOVETT, MSO PR
 ON ANJUNABEATS/ULTRA MUSIC
PRE-ORDER THE ALBUM & INSTANTLY RECEIVE
ACOUSTIC VERSIONS OF “HELLO,” “WE’RE ALL WE NEED”
AND “ANOTHER CHANCE”
 ABOVE & BEYOND are a phenomenon unlike any other in dance music. The Grammy-nominated producers are the only British dance act to sell out Madison Square Garden, and now are about to take an 18-piece band set up on a sold-out tour of the world’s most iconic concert halls (including London’s Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House and Hollywood Bowl) in support of ACOUSTIC II, which will be released June 3 on Anjunabeats/Ultra Music.
The ACOUSTIC II studio album and accompanying show–described by Billboard as “…one of the finest and more memorable shows in EDM history”–represents yet another against-the-odds landmark in the unique story of ABOVE & BEYOND. “Hello,” “We’re All We Need” and “Another Chance” are available now with album pre-order and on Spotify:
“Hello”
“We’re All We Need” feat. Zoë Johnston
“Another Chance” feat. Justine Suissa
For ABOVE & BEYOND, the secret is in the songs. Sung back at them by thousands at their celebratory DJ sets, the trio’s tales of life, love and loss have sound-tracked weddings, proposals, hikes up Everest, marathons and funerals. Following on last year’s critically acclaimed electronic album We Are All We Need, ACOUSTIC II features re-imagined versions of several of the best-loved songs from that album, alongside classics from ABOVE & BEYOND’s extensive back catalogue. The music of ACOUSTIC II is made for concert halls rather than clubs; breathing new life and context into the songs that have made ABOVE & BEYOND famous. View the ACOUSTIC II album announcement video here.
The recording process for ACOUSTIC II began in late summer 2015 as Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness and Paavo Siljamäki once again got together with Leeds-based musical director Bob Bradley, who’d worked on Acoustic, to assemble a new selection of songs with a view to reinventing and re-recording them. From the initial pool of contenders, a core of 13 songs were agreed upon.
The Grammy-nominated “We’re All We Need,” a collaboration with singer/songwriter Zoë Johnston, was an obvious choice. The addition of mandolin and ukelele was less obvious, but the instruments are an inspired addition to its wee-hours, orchestral-jazz rendering. “Sticky Fingers,” an album teaser single from 2013, is another standout, here re-rubbed into a stirring, swelling, 007-worthy love theme.
“The great thing about this version of ‘Sticky Fingers’ is that, before this, the only version we had out there was a dance mix,” says ABOVE & BEYOND’s TONY MCGUINNESS. “There was more of a song that we never released. So the whole song is in this version of ‘Sticky Fingers’ and it’s the same with ‘Peace Of Mind’ – there are extra verses here.”
Also featured on the new album is an acoustic version of the new OceanLab (ABOVE & BEYOND’s alias with Justine Suissa) single “Another Chance”–which is one of three songs available to download now as an instant grat when you pre-order the album, alongside “We’re All We Need” and “Hello,” and a majestic, string-laden reworking of “On My Way To Heaven.”
“With the first acoustic album, it was guitars, piano, strings and vocals that were the bare bones of what we were working with,” added fellow band member PAAVO SILJAMÄKI. “This time around we thought: ‘what other kinds of things can we do?’ So brass is a really big player on Acoustic II: we added a lot of John Barry-esque brass horns. And we wondered what interesting things we could do with the voices, so there are a lot of choral and bigger vocal arrangements than on the first one. Really, this album is standing on the shoulders of the first one. If we’d have tried this then, it would have been overwhelming and too much for us to do.”
For the album recordings, the original vocalists are featured on their respective tracks. As for the live shows, original vocalists Zoë Johnston and Justine Suissa are joined by newcomers Natalie Holmes and Cobi, while JONO, TONY and PAAVO reach back into their own individual musical histories to perform different parts of the arrangements, including JONO on Rhodes, TONY on guitar and vocals, and PAAVO on piano.
ACOUSTIC II can be pre-ordered here and the last remaining tickets for ABOVE & BEYOND’s Acoustic II shows at The Wang in Boston, Berkeley Greek Theatre, Beacon Theatre in New York and Waikiki Shell, Honolulu, can be purchased via www.aboveandbeyond.nu/acoustic.
Full Tracklisting for Acoustic II:
1. Hello
2. We’re All We Need
3. On My Way To Heaven
4. Save Me
5. All Over The World
6. No One On Earth
7. Black Room Boy
8. Peace Of Mind
9. Sticky Fingers
10. Alchemy
11. Counting Down The Days / Liquid Love
12. Blue Sky Action
13. Another Chance
Spotify embeds:
“Hello”
<iframe src=”https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:70oieemRwR4y6Z0jRy0HLu” width=”300″ height=”80″ frameborder=”0″ allowtransparency=”true”></iframe>
“We’re All We Need”
<iframe src=”https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:6MAmV8YIleZwVhm1jAGBQ3” width=”300″ height=”80″ frameborder=”0″ allowtransparency=”true”></iframe>
“Another Chance”
<iframe src=”https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:18LyvOCkXwiLxBZ9K9SpqQ” width=”300″ height=”80″ frameborder=”0″ allowtransparency=”true”></iframe>
 Catch ABOVE & BEYOND on tour:
About Above & Beyond
Over their four critically acclaimed studio albums, along with their acoustic project, Above & Beyond have continually been celebrated for placing real musicianship and songwriting at the heart of what they do. While their famed club mixes have resonated with the dance generation, the songs behind them have touched fans of all ages across the globe. As influenced as much by Jeff Buckley or Bon Iver as they are by their deep love of electronic music, Above & Beyond’s songs and lyrics have been sung back to them at the world’s biggest stadiums and stages – from Alexandra Palace, to Madison Square Garden, to LA’s Forum, to their famed one million people gig at Barra Beach in Rio de Janeiro in 2007.
About Zoë Johnston
Zoë Johnston is a British singer-songwriter and long-time Above & Beyond collaborator. She’s recorded with seminal electronic acts Faithless, Bent and Delirium and released a solo album, ‘Happenstances’ in 2006. Zoë has appeared on all three Above & Beyond artist albums and co-wrote some of the band’s biggest hits including ‘Good For Me’, ‘Love Is Not Enough, ‘You Got To Go’ and, most recently, Grammy nominated single ‘We’re All We Need’.
About Justine Suissa
One of dance music’s best-loved voices, Above & Beyond fans will know her best as a member of OceanLab, the iconic trance group that spawned evergreen dance anthems ‘Clear Blue Water’, ‘Satellite’ and ‘On A Good Day’, as well as studio album ‘Sirens of the Sea’. More recently she’s performed on ‘Little Something’ from Above & Beyond’s ‘We Are All We Need’ album, and in 2016 will revive the OceanLab moniker on ‘Another Chance’, a highlight of the iTunes chart-topping Anjunabeats Volume 12 compilation.
About Cobi
A singer-songwriter born and bred in the northern most part of Minnesota, Cobi is one of the most compelling songwriters of the new millennium. His voice travels from low valleys to high peaks while his guitar is the heartstring of his powerful live performances. His first single, “Darker Than Dawn”, was entirely self-produced and recorded in his Los Angeles studio. The track, one of 2016’s sleeping giants, will be released in early summer. With musical influences that have crossed genres and generations, his songwriting style has been described as “Neil Young meets Miike Snow.” He was already shared the stage with acclaimed artists including Young The Giant, Cee Lo Green, All American Rejects, One Republic and Beyoncé.
About Natalie Holmes
Hailing from Bristol, UK, singer/songwriter Natalie Holmes has clocked up three successful EPs, the most recent of which hit the top 10 of iTunes singer/songwriter charts. Her delicate, angelic voice attracted the attention of pop culture doyen Perez Hilton, who featured ‘Safety Net’ on his blog, her music also appearing on hit TV show ‘Made In Chelsea’. She first began writing songs on piano and then as a self-taught guitarist and is influenced by artists such as Ellie Goulding, Sara Bareilles, Bon Iver, Gabrielle Aplin (who she supported at Leeds O2 Academy).
# # # For more information on ABOVE & BEYOND, contact:
MSO PR 818-380-0400 Alexandra Greenberg x223, agreenberg@msopr.com Vanessa Lovett, vlovett@msopr.com |
