Browse by Artist: CALLA

Artist:	CALLA
Title:	Televise
Label:	QUATERMASS (BELGIUM)
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	QS 116CD

[licensed to Arena Rock in the US] "Occupying both the garage and the temple, Calla are at once dissonant and pristine, harmonious and rhythmic. They cling to the dirty residues of NYC with an attention always affixed upward to cosmopolitan refinement. A fact perhaps explained by the group's roots in Texas and their emigration to Brooklyn. Unlike most of their contemporaries, Aurelio Valle (guitar/vocals), Wayne Magruder (drums/programming/percussion) and Sean Donovan (keyboard/bass/programming) understand the way in which the dirtiness of rock intersects the world of high art. Their third release Televise pushes harshly against complacency with stunning sophistication. The music allows avant gestures to collapse into supple pop while catapulting their dark breathless aggression into a furious swelling of feedback. This is the moment when the curtains are opened and light floods the room. Angular guitars bend across thick bass lines; weightless electronics become pulled into the harsh simplicity of minimalist percussion; Aurelio's fragile voice rises boldly against the torrents of expressive noise. It is for this reason that artists like Nick Cave, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Ros have been eager to perform with them. Calla are unquestionably a band whose work will be dissected and reevaluated long after their beautiful static energy burns away."

Artist:	CALLA
Title:	Televise
Label:	QUATERMASS (BELGIUM)
Format:	LP
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	QS 116LP

LP version; CD is on Arena Rock in the US. "Occupying both the garage and the temple, Calla are at once dissonant and pristine, harmonious and rhythmic. They cling to the dirty residues of NYC with an attention always affixed upward to cosmopolitan refinement. A fact perhaps explained by the group's roots in Texas and their emigration to Brooklyn. Unlike most of their contemporaries, Aurelio Valle (guitar/vocals), Wayne Magruder (drums/programming/percussion) and Sean Donovan (keyboard/bass/programming) understand the way in which the dirtiness of rock intersects the world of high art. Their third release Televise pushes harshly against complacency with stunning sophistication. The music allows avant gestures to collapse into supple pop while catapulting their dark breathless aggression into a furious swelling of feedback. This is the moment when the curtains are opened and light floods the room. Angular guitars bend across thick bass lines; weightless electronics become pulled into the harsh simplicity of minimalist percussion; Aurelio's fragile voice rises boldly against the torrents of expressive noise. It is for this reason that artists like Nick Cave, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Ros have been eager to perform with them. Calla are unquestionably a band whose work will be dissected and reevaluated long after their beautiful static energy burns away."

Artist:	CALLA
Title:	Custom (The Remix Project)
Label:	QUATERMASS (BELGIUM)
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	QS 118CD

"Calla is a three-piece band with Aurelio Valle (guitar/vocals), Wayne B. Magruder (drums/ programming/ percussion), and Sean Donovan (keyboard/bass/programming).The three roommates formed Calla at the end of 1997 and recorded their debut LP throughout 1998 at their home in Brooklyn. Calla's self-titled debut was released in mid 1999 on Quatermass. Their second album Scavengers was co-produced by Michael Gira of Swans' fame and released in 2001 on Quatermass (on Young God in the USA). For their new project Calla let other renowned artists like I-Sound, Pan American, Couch and Tarwater transform their 'Radiohead-meets-Nick Cave'-like songs into something quite new and exhilarating. Electronic sounds melt together with Calla's unique fragile sensibility. All of the original songs are treated with great respect, nevertheless some of them are reconstructed in a totally different form leaving nothing but the spirit of the originals intact. This is music for anyone interested in great songwriting and modern electronica."

Artist:	CALLA
Title:
Label:	SUB ROSA (BELGIUM)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	SR 156CD

"Calla is a new band formed by 3 Texans in New York. It is one of the most inventive musics imaginable since the sound and image experimentations by David Lynch. If you close your eyes you will immediately be connected with a kind of strange, electric, dark, ambiguous universe -- a parallel world between an offbeat Texas rockabilly and soundmass of the sixties' New York avant garde. Aurelio Valle was raised in South Texas, and relocated to North Texas in early 1993, playing in various rockabilly and garage bands. Wayne B. Magruder and Sean Donovan played in a variety of bands throughout high school together. When the band relocated to NYC in 1993, Magruder joined Bowery Electric as a live drummer, and played on their second LP, Beat. Sean Donovan is a classically trained composer, influenced by the American experimentalist tradition, especially the New York school of the fifties and Fluxus composers of the sixties. Late in 1997, with intentions of integrating melodic structures into urban soundscapes, the 3 roommates formed Calla. They recorded their debut LP throughout 1998 at their home in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn."

Artist:	CALLA
Title:	Scavengers
Label:	YOUNG GOD
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	YG 015CD

"Calla are from Texas, and moved to NYC a few years ago. The music is slow and slinky, with deep bass and lots of space and atmosphere. The grooves have a swampy, narcotized-Cajun feel, with hollow-body-twang guitar that snakes and erupts through the mix with signature lines -- Morricone-like sometimes, but more authentically American -- very bluesy, dramatic, and spacious. They use some electronic textures and grooves, too, very tastefully and not gimmicky, just enough to convey a sense of dimension and filmic atmosphere. The vocals are softly intoned and tender, but right up front in the mix." -- Michael Gira

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