Nicola Hitchcock

category: Vocal
genre: Electronica / pop

Contact Info

e: ian@ardentmusic.co.uk
w: www.ardentmusic.co.uk

Label Info

p+c Tempted Records 2005
e: info@nicolahitchcock.com
w: www.nicolahitchcock.com

Listen

Biog
Nicola's debut solo album "a bowl of chalk" was released in 1993 on F-Beat/Demon Records (home of the young Elvis Costello et al) and featured legendary bass player Danny Thompson (Everything But The Girl, Richard Thompson) and drummer Neil Conti (Prefab Sprout).
In 1995 Nicola teamed up with Saul Freeman to form Mandalay (V2 Records) releasing three albums over seven years "empathy", "instinct" and a compilation album released exclusively in the US entitled "solace". Madonna namechecked Mandalay as her favourite band and included the song "this life" on her film "the next best thing" soundtrack. Canny's remix of Mandalay's "Beautiful" featured on Cafe del Mar's volume 6 won the band many fans, particularly in the US, and was also the soundtrack to a major TV advertising campaign for Estee Lauder. More recently Sarah Brightman recorded her own version of "Beautiful" (from the album "empathy") as part of her album "Harem". Nicola's music has been described as "electronic torch songs", "all modern and emotional" and "modern classical" ..
Her current album "Passive Aggressive" comprises a collection of mostly collaborative tracks written and recorded over the past three years.......
" Plaintive, melancholy and full of feeling; Nicola's songs have an honesty that you can feel in her voice even before you hear it in the words. The singing here is soft, close up, often little more than a whisper. The uncluttered arrangements on this CD add to the intimacy, at times just drums, bass and minimal pianos or electronica. The more intense musical structure of 'I Forgive Me' combines with sweet vocals to create a sense of brooding, a weight that carries over into the following track 'Cloudy Skies and Rain' where the drums are stronger and looser than most of the album. There is a beautiful surreal quality to the final track 'Morning' featuring Ryuichi Sakomoto's sparse piano playing, enhanced by an exquisitely emotive string arrangement from Hector Zazou ....