Unconventional Collaboration Changes the Day Spa Experience and the Louisiana Music Industry
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Orleans, LA — The 80's are over. Spa music is stuck in a time when ocean waves and singing whales defined relaxation.
Until now, when Miss Celie's Spa Orleans of New Orleans has partnered with Hi-Fi Sky to produce Music For Synchronized Swimming In Space. It is music that could only be created in New Orleans from melodies that are rooted in the city's 200 year-old French and Cajun culture.
Hi-Fi Sky's Tim Sommer and Alexandra Scott
Hi-Fi Sky was formed in 2004 by Tim Sommer and Alexandra Scott in the flat, flaking, slanting, shambolic city of New Orleans to make quiet music to be played very loudly…or loud music to be played very quietly. In conjunction with the release of their debut album, they'll be playing extensively around their hometown. Their debut album Music For Synchronized Swimming In Space is 67 minutes of grand, ghostly, spacious, melodic sound and is being released by Seersucker Fantasy Records April 20. Initially it'll be available through the New Orleans-based VooBrew coffee shop chain, Miss Celie's Spa Orleans, select regional music outlets and via http://www.hi-fisky.com/.
The "music" in question is weird electronic art pop; or maybe it's sonic ambient folk; or perhaps it is maximally minimalist chilled-out punk, or cinematic southern psychedelia. With one foot in German style minimalism, one foot in sensual, bittersweet pop, and a third theoretical foot in the indigenous folk melodies of Europe, Canada, and the American South, Hi-Fi Sky echo some of the avant-ambient territory mined by Tim Sommer's old band, Hugo Largo, while creating their own original brand of wide screen electronic ensemble playing.
Although Music For Synchronized Swimming In Space is the first music from Hi-Fi Sky, Sommer and Scott are far from music industry novices. Sommer has been professionally involved in music since he was in his mid-teens as a music journalist, radio DJ and reporter for MTV. He was a founding member of slo-core pioneers Hugo Largo, after serving for some three years with the seminal avant-garde guitar choir led by Glenn Branca. Alexandra Scott began gigging as a teenager around her native Charlottesville, VA before becoming a classical guitar major at Vassar. She has released two albums under her own name, and one with the techno vibe band, the DBC.
Keith & André West-Harrison
Keith & André West-Harrison, owners of Miss Celie's Spa Orléans and VooBrew Coffee & Tea were introduced to Tim and Alexandra by a mutual friend. Alexandra became the spa's Yoga instructor in residence.
This introduction blossomed into just what Keith and André wanted to do; explore avant-garde art and bring it into an unprecedented sphere where it would find more listeners, while simultaneously revolutionizing spa and relaxation music.
"No more whales mating and waves crashing. The same music has been used at spas since I was in high school. We know our clients want different," said Keith.
