PAULA RAE GIBSON

"simultaneously disconcerting and moving" Jazzwise

An all round creative artist, equally at home in the worlds of music, photography and poetry, Paula Rae Gibson creates songs which evoke an ethereal world inhabited by the likes of Keith Jarrett. Her music has a haunting intimacy reflecting human nature and relationships, creating a "variety of atmospheric soundscapes" (Peter Quinn, Jazzwise). "A cinematic, dark and at times erotic set." (Rough Trade) "Music-making doesn't get much more personal than this." (Jazzwise)
Her first album, No More Tiptoes, is on 33 Records. She is currently writing with both cellist Richard Bolton and Kit Downes (Empirical)

MAYBE TOO NUDE

SPECIAL PACK WITH 32 PAGE BOOKLET NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE AND AS A DOWNLOAD

Samples of all tracks also can be heard on the download page.

14 ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS CREATED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF TOM PILLING, MARTYN BARKER AND WILL GREGORY.

"i believe that suffering is essential for bringing out the best of who we are. if you race thru life only skimming the top of your emotions you'll never get to feel ecstasy , and free yourself with the fear and insecurity that seems" (prg)

NO MORE TIPTOES
(Download and hear samples here)
Selected by Mike Flynn (Jazzwise, Time Out) as one of his 10 CDs of 2007

We Blow It Every Time chosen as a top 10 track of 2007 in Time Out:
"The Nico of understated electric piano jazz laments the failure of… well, everything, in a downbeat song that's up there with PJ Harvey's recent collection for melancholy. "

Download the track from our site here

New review from Amazon.co.uk
All Things Bleak and Beautiful , 11 Oct 2007
Intimate and intense are two adjectives that, while apt, probably don't do justice to the songs contained on this album. Intimate because all fourteen tracks consist of Paula Rae Gibson's vocal and Tom Pilling's keyboard. Intense because of the raw subject matter upon which the songs are based. After the death of her husband, Paula Rae Gibson did not want to risk the possible heartbreak that a new love affair could bring, but, as her website has it, "Wishing to satisfy her physical needs, she embarked on a series of volatile sexual encounters with all the wrong men." `No More Tiptoes' is not an easy album to get into. It's not full of radio-friendly pop songs and its melancholic backdrop may give the impression of being a one-trick album. It would be a mistake to dismiss it on those terms because it does repay repeated listening.

Paula Rae Gibson's voice, stylistically, lies somewhere between Tori Amos and Fiona Apple with dark undertones of Nico and the idiosyncrasy of Mary Margaret O'Hara. The comparison with Tori Amos is probably the most striking because of the piano accompaniment throughout the album.

Tim Pilling's playing has a blues tinge on `The Wrong Man' as Paula sings of a man who "loves to make you feel small." At other times his sound is akin to a Harold Budd composition, notably on `Busy Fairies'. On `White Bird', the delicacy of Pilling's playing counterpoints the lyrical intensity and mournfulness of Paula's voice to exquisite effect. Paula's most Nico-like performance comes on the album's closing track, `I'll Always Walk Away' and here, Pilling's playing is dark and full of foreboding. Throughout the album, Paula's voice takes on various cadences. At times it barely rises above a whisper as her lyrics are wrung out of her. At others, it cracks, quavers and slows almost to a speaking voice.

Paula Rae Gibson has a book of photography called `Diary of a Love Addict' available. `No More Tiptoes' could perhaps be described as the songs of a love addict. On `Come Tomorrow', she plaintively asks: "Come tomorrow, will we be feeling this still?" and she asserts that, "Love is the only drug." Feelings and love are constant refrains on this stunning album. Poetry and photography seem to have been Paula Rae Gibson's main creative outlets until this album. I wonder if she can come up with another, more thematically varied album, or will this be her only foray into music? I really hope we hear more from her, but, either way, at the moment, `No More Tiptoes' is my favourite album of 2007. Don't miss it.

New review from itunes

Dark and wonderful....
" This album is very special - one should approach it as an album to be alone with. It has such a pull that you are sucked in for the duration and you won't be disappointed - in fact you will be stronger for it. This album transcends and and demans more than the normal requirements of just hearing. Try it and be amazed."

Three versions are available:

as a book with lyrics and new photos,
one as a regular CD in jewel case
as a download from the Babel web site.

DOWNLOAD HERE
You can also listen to 1 minute samples of all tracks from the album.


NEW SPECIAL EDITION WITH PHOTOS AND LYRICS. IT IS AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY DIRECT OR IN A LIMITED NUMBER OF OUTLETS.
BUY HERE
The price is the same as for a regular CD in the shops.

album on 33 records

With Tom Pilling (piano)
Versions without lyrics available here.

Raw, unashamed, without pretense, an expression of life, loss, fear and a need to be just honest.

Biography here. too much to put on the site itself.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY…

“A trenchantly individual piece of work, No More Tiptoes is the debut CD from London-born singer, poet, photographer and filmmaker Paula Rae Gibson. Stripped down to just keyboard and voice, music-making doesn't get much more personal than this. Some of the songs almost give the impression of being improvised – ‘Busy Fairies' being a prime example – while others such as ‘I'll Always Walk Away' have a more clearly defined harmonic motion.

Pianist Tom Pilling creates a variety of atmospheric soundscapes, from rippling right-hand figurations and booming bass octaves to the merest chordal fragments, against which the singer delivers her painful and questioning soliloquies in a voice that at times is so gossamer-light it threatens to evaporate into the ether. A disc that's simultaneously disconcerting and moving." Peter Quinn, Jazzwise

" Singer, photographer and writer Gibson's creative raison d'etre stemmed from the untimely death her husband and acclaimed filmaker Brian (director of 'What's Love Got To Do With It'). Using over-proof, raw emotion, stunning instinctive melodies and controlled improvisation, her 'No More Tiptoes' is a highly personal take on dealing with love and grief, while pianist Tom Pilling frames Gibson's crystalline, emotional gems with a fractured, Jarrett-ish style. With comparisons to Kate Bush and Tori Amos, but a distinctly improvised jazz twist, this is refreshingly honest music." (Mike Flynn, Time Out)

"Paula Rae Gibson is a singer songwriter who is using the sensibilities and nuances of jazz to create original music of honesty and emotional intensity." Ollie Weindling, Babel Label

In the shops in October, but buy it here now

Lyrics here

Performances:

Frankfurt, 23 February 2008
Vortex, 11 March 2008

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run away

we blow it every time

Check these out at a larger size here

Maybe Too Nude will be available on Babel in early 2008. It includes collaborations with Will Gregory (Goldfrapp). More information here AND DOWNLOAD A SINGLE HERE.

Next collaborations are with Alan Rankine (The Associates), Richard Bolton.

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