To LISTEN to tracks by Lily Taylor, please click on the images below:
“Vintage effects, aural soundscapes, looped melodies, and a ravishing voice all contribute to Lily Taylor’s dynamic solo performances. After moving to San Francisco from Santa Fe, NM, where she studied contemporary music and alternative practices, the musician became involved in myriad projects, collaborating and ever expanding her experimental yet completely accessible music. On her own, Taylor’s uniquely structured songs play out with an arresting passion and a sublime spirit.” -CHARLIE SWANSON Noise Pop SF. Taylor also locks harmony and tours with San Francisco’s darling, Karina Denike. In addition, Taylor collaborates with dancers/ performance artists around the Bay Area- exploring the art of Drag, dive rock clubs, vintage jazz halls, SoMA theaters, parlors, galleries, and underground venues of The Bay Area. For booking information: lily.taylor.music@gmail.com.
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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT LILY TAYLOR
-“This lovely lady has a gorgeously haunting voice. A MUST SEE for all discerning music lovers”-Carletta Sue Kay, San Francisco, CA
-“Lily is truly a siren of classic mythology and quite possibly in future tales as well” -Red Cell, Santa Fe, NM
-“As if Ms. Denike did not offer enough vocal magic, she duets on many of her songs with Lily Taylor, a show-stopping singer in her own right… ” -Todd Wanerman, thebaybridged.com San Francisco, CA
-”Her songs are like dreams. Like soft, yet insistent rituals. Like a form of voluntary hypnosis. Like Pop but without the sugar. Like Electronica played in an infinite canyon. Like Jazz, but from the perspective of a shaman. Sometimes, echoes of Trip Hop and Tom Waits resonate within the empty hallways of tracks like “Reap” or “Taste”, which feel more like sonic landscapes than traditional songs. But these references remain vague and never cristalyse into clear-cut genre-affiliations. It should seem apt that Taylor at times sounds as though she were singing in her sleep.” – Tobias Fischer, Tokafi.com ‘your link to music scenes worldwide’
-”Lily Taylor adds the sexy at UnderCover Presents Doolittle.”
Photo: Peter Varshavsky
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VIDEOS
St. James Infirmary arranged by Lily Taylor
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PRESS
SF Music Examiner March 1, 2011
review by Jamie Freedman
“Highlights of the night for me were discovering Karina Denike & Lily Taylor and Blue Rabbit. Blue Rabbit performed “Hey,” complete with three-part harmony and an arrangement that proves that the cello and harp are bonafide rock’n’roll instruments. Karina Denike & Lily Taylor were as sultry as can be on their rendition of “Silver.” The recorded tracks are just as amazing.” full article
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PRESS
An Interview with Lily Taylor for Tokafi.com November 2010
The human voice is a most curious thing. It can inflict physical pain or fear. Seduce and haunt you. Go from a whisper to a holler within seconds. Sound perfectly self-assured only to crack and become impossible to control. Occasionally, it can even make you fall in love with a complete stranger. A stranger like Lily Taylor, for example. Her songs are like dreams. Like soft, yet insistent rituals. Like a form of voluntary hypnosis. Like Pop but without the sugar. Like Electronica played in an infinite canyon. Like Jazz, but from the perspective of a shaman. Sometimes, echoes of Trip Hop and Tom Waits resonate within the empty hallways of tracks like “Reap” or “Taste”, which feel more like sonic landscapes than traditional songs. But these references remain vague and never cristalyse into clear-cut genre-affiliations. It should seem apt that Taylor at times sounds as though she were singing in her sleep. After all, her lyrics are foremost emotional reflections of unresolved psychological states – Freud would have loved her debut album “Overtones”. And yet, Taylor’s music is anything but eccentric, with plenty of harmonic hooks and melodic loops guiding her audience through a fascinating and beguiling terra incognita. Perhaps it was her decision to move to Santa Fe in 2000, “to learn from healers, scholars, and artists about the responsibility artists have to show alternate perspectives”, that decisively shaped her unique approach. Perhaps, however, she simply followed her own voice – after all, as she puts it, controlling your voice can be part of an effort of controlling your entire body – and thus, consequently, one’s life. When applied correctly, it can even make complete strangers feel like long-lost friends.
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PRESS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 2011
SF’s Chantueses Karina Denike and Lily Taylor play NYC July 2nd, 3rd, and 5th
Sought after Avant-Pop/ Indie Experimental chanteuses, Lily Taylor and KarinaDenike, bring their varying styles of genre blending to NY the first week of July.
These ladies compose beautiful pieces, creating soundscapes and atmospheric pop over which their commanding and mellifluous voices are the muse and underlying instrument in creating their songs. ….and they can REALLY sing.
Their writing styles differ – Lily Taylor leaning more towards Laurie Anderson or Brian Eno, and Karina Denike leaning towards 1930’s torch songs, girl groups, or Morricone soundtracks. But their collaborative work and commonalities as individual band leaders focus on the way they use the voice itself as an infinite tool to mold, harmonize, and harness whether in layered loops, haunting high notes, low husky doo wop tones, or heart wrenching storytelling. And when they sing together they bring crowded rooms to a whisper within a few delicately placed notes.
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Contact info:
Lily Taylor
lily.taylor.music@gmail.com
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PRESS
Beyond The Veil: a multimedia experience at CounterPULSE- review by Ryan Crowder
The Lovely Lily
by Ryan Crowder / April 2nd, 2010
Last week, I was lucky enough to attend “Beyond the Veil” at CounterPULSE. The evening, a mix of music, performance and visuals was an experience I have been needing to have. Lily Taylor took the stage and presented the audience a rare opportunity to see a music artist pair her work with performance artists inspired by music. Seated at her keyboard by her drum and looping mechanisms, her sultry, atmospheric and fluid vocals interacted with a variety of impressive visual stimuli all curated by the artist herself. Abstract textured video projection and shadow work reacted to her vocals, choreographed floor and aerial work added a physical intensity to the experience and a culminating down-home apple pie drag performance with an inventive and somewhat circuslike creepitude and joyful video projection brought down the house. Thanks to all involved.
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PRESS
Music Video Review by Red Cell
The End of Being
The San Francisco based chanteuse and TEOB contributor, Lily Taylor, has two new videos out filmed by the increasingly interesting Estacia Huddelston. The first, is a live film performance of one of Taylor’s signature pieces, Dead Elephants. The video shows a live, multi projection piece and comes across as voyeuristic and slightly unstable, which only heightens the sorrowful emoting of Taylor’s voice and lyrics. The second is an organic, psychedelic dance of form and color named Thread. This video is an ultrasound scan of warm, quiet video art perfection. It is an alien videoscape that human eyes cannot quiet see in it’s true form. Both videos showcase Lily’s and Estacia’s ever expanding stylistic approaches to their art and their mastery of all they attempt. As far as we are concerned here at TEOB, these are two artists to keep on your radar. – Red Cell
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PRESS
High profile blog listings:
-Lumina Arts presents, Breathed…Unsaid… at SoMA Arts
-SF Music Examiner -pictures and a review
-Bay Bridged pictures from Noise Pop show 2/23/11
-Pictures by Josh Blank Upper Playground Blog for Noise Pop
-Event pick on The Bold Italic Blog
-Listing for the album, Overtones on The End of Being Blog
-Music Box Series at The Climate Theater
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