Search - Laura Doyle :: Dark Horse

The new record, Dark Horse , is done and it heralds a new beginning for Laura Doyle. A complete departure from the electronic fascination of her first CD "No Easy Answers", this album is all real, all live off the floor, all performance. With a new band she calls Passionfish, a new sound and a new producer, Laura Doyle has never sounded better. The collaboration with producer Graeme Coleman, who has taken a time out from his busy film scoring career, has yielded a unique sound that bridges pop, roots, Americana and even jazz. Coleman is best known as a Juno nominated producer for his 80s jazz fusion project Skywalk and is no stranger to fresh, unfettered originality. Finding it difficult to perform her first electronica record live, Doyle decided she wanted to capture more of the bold dynamics of live performance in the studio. The vision was "homespun sophistication", a harmonizing of paradoxes, a balancing of polarities. The new songs contain just that, both meticulously arranged by Coleman and yet freely performed by such great players as Randall Stoll (Tom Cochran & kd Lang) on drums, Miles Hill (Nickelback, Colin James) on bass and subtle Lanois-esque guitar work from Andreas Schuld (Susan Crowe, Long John Baldry). Producer Graeme Coleman shines with stunning piano work, adding unforgettable motifs and layering in plenty of vintage vibe with Hammond B3 organ. This band, known as Passionfish, also plays live with Doyle, ensuring performances that are both true to the album and full of inspired variation. The new material has a worldliness and maturity; a deep understanding of the folly of obsession, the faithless meandering of the runaway, the daily struggle to stay buoyant. Doyle s songs offer something better than pop confection, something much more than self absorbed navel gazing. In the metaphors, in the poetry, in the hypnotic rhythms and sweet voiced laments you may find a kind of redemption and surprising lightness of being.