For Immediate Release
\nJanuary 7, 2019<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Ari & Mia reference the styles of Southern and Northeastern fiddle music and the early American songbook, honoring the sounds of\u00a0Appalachian cottages, rural dance floors, and urban concert halls<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c\u2026strikingly beautiful, distinctive and exhilarating\u2026\u201d \u2013\u00a0No Depression<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe recorded\u00a0Sew The City<\/em>\u00a0in the gorgeous and isolated Great North Sound Society in Parsonsfield, ME,\u201d says Ariel.\u00a0 \u201cAn old farmhouse was the perfect place to access quiet and creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n The sisters produced the album themselves, and it was engineered by Ariel Bernstein, with help from GNSS intern Abigale Sullivan.\u00a0 Bernstein also provided insightful input on the production side.\u00a0 \u201cWe recorded all of the takes live together in one room, other than a few third harmony parts that we overdubbed and Ariel Bernstein\u2019s added percussion on two tracks,\u201d says Mia.\u00a0 \u201cThis resulted in an album that sounds exactly like what our audience would hear at a live show. The sound is organic and full, and it features intricately designed parts for all four of our voices\u2014two vocals and two instruments.\u201d<\/p>\n Recording\u00a0Sew The City<\/em>\u00a0felt freeing and exhilarating for the pair, \u201cmost likely due to being isolated in a gorgeous place where our only goal was birthing this album,\u201d says Ariel. \u201cWe allowed ourselves to be influenced by the place itself, like when we recorded \u2018Unquiet Grave\u2019 directly after we had visited the extremely old and definitely haunted basement. It was late in the evening and raining buckets outside.\u201d<\/p>\n The album has a subtle theme of paying homage to fierce female ancestors. \u201cTil I Die\u201d and \u201cSew The City\u201d both tell the stories of their maternal and paternal grandmothers respectively. On the more ridiculous side, \u201cRoll Away\u201d tells the story of the once-carpeted kitchen in Mia\u2019s home, proudly built by her husband\u2019s grandparents in the 1940s. They also cover a song by their all-time favorite (s)hero Joni Mitchell, whose song, \u201cThe Fiddle and the Drum,\u201d is a letter to North\u00a0America.\u00a0 Written in 1969 as an anti-war song, it wonders why this country has \u201ctraded the fiddle for the drum\u201d while still remembering \u201call the good things you are.\u201d \u201cWe found this to be a fitting song to resurrect and rearrange at this particular moment in our country\u2019s political climate,\u201d Mia says.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a poignant and thought-provoking song with which to end the album.\u201d<\/p>\n With a sound that\u00a0SingOut! Magazine<\/em>\u00a0praised as \u201ca traditional rootsy grounding with a clear background of classical training\u201d as well as \u201csoothing and fresh, tasteful and accomplished,\u201d the sisters have toured across the United States and Australia since 2008, and both are both graduates of New England Conservatory’s cutting-edge Contemporary Improvisation department. They’ve performed alongside Sarah Jarosz, have opened for the likes of Cheryl Wheeler and Catie Curtis, and have played at venues such as Shalin Liu Performing Arts Center, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival’s Mainstage Emerging Artist Showcase, Club Passim, the Parlor Room, New Bedford Folk Festival, and Jordan Hall. Both are award-winning songwriters: Mia\u2019s song \u201cAcross the Water\u201d won the 2010 John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the folk category, and Ari’s song “Old Man” was a semi-finalist for the 2016 International Songwriting Competition.<\/p>\n \u201cAri & Mia are not creating a new music; they are taking it to another level and exploring areas that have not been attempted in decades,\u201d\u00a0No Depression<\/em>\u00a0opined about their most recent album,\u00a0Out of Stone<\/em>. \u201cTheir all-acoustic, pure and honest approach has significance. Treading the edges of traditional folk in a more faithful manner, they share the lyrical wizardry of 70\u2019s bands Steeleye Span, Tir-na-Nog, and the Incredible String Band, with searing harmony as good as The Beach Boys. The sisters sing in unison like two violins.\u201d Their two previous albums,\u00a0Land on Shore<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Unruly Heart<\/em>, ranked high on the national folk radio charts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel wildly grateful to have such a unique sisterly partnership,\u201d Ariel says of their familial bond and performing alliance. \u201cOur collaboration involves each of us writing song skeletons separately and then bringing the partially formed song to our duo where together we shape it into its final form. Performing and touring together is one of our favorite ways to spend time\u2014we\u2019re well aware of how lucky we are to be able to spend days and weeks with only each other and not go insane.\u201d<\/p>\n Meet Ari & Mia:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Ariel Friedman<\/strong>\u00a0is a multi-genre cellist, composer, and educator. A winner of ASTA\u2019s Alternative Styles Award, she is steeped both in the music of American roots traditions and a broad range of classical repertoire. She has performed and toured with many folk-based groups including Scottish National Fiddle champion Hanneke Cassel, the Sail Away Ladies, and Childsplay. An advocate of new music and a composer herself, she is the founding cellist of Cardamom Quartet, performs with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and has written music for and collaborated with many ensembles including Palaver Strings, Box Not Found, DC-based pianist and composer Sam Post, and the young artists of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. In demand as an educator, Ariel teaches at Brookline Music School, has her own private studio and has taught at music camps and workshops from New England to New Zealand.\u00a0Ariel graduated from Northwestern University in 2008 and received a Masters of Music from New England Conservatory in 2011.\u00a0She is one of two 2018 recipients of New England Conservatory’s Alumni Award.\u00a0Visit\u00a0www.arielfriedmanmusic.com for more info.<\/p>\n Mia Friedman<\/strong>\u00a0is a virtuosic fiddler and singer as well as a composer and educator. Her song \u201cAcross the Water\u201d won the 2010 John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the folk category, and she was the 2006 New Hampshire Highland Games Scottish Fiddle Champion. She is largely\u00a0influenced by American roots music and old-time Appalachian traditions, and blends this with contemporary music in her compositions.\u00a0Mia plays with Hollow Deck\u2014a duo of tape collage, vocals, and woodwinds\u2014and avant-garde rock band, Creative Healing.\u00a0She teaches at the Community Music School of Springfield, MA and leads elementary and high school string programs in five public schools in Springfield. She is the orchestra teacher at The Hartsbrook Waldorf School, has a private studio of fiddle students, leads adult music classes, and teaches at many traditional fiddle music camps during the summer.\u00a0Mia graduated from New England Conservatory in 2012 where she studied with Anthony Coleman, Carla Kihlstedt, and Hankus Netsky.<\/p>\n
\nARI & MIA SET TO RELEASE ALBUM IN MARCH<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nWith music that\u00a0No Depression<\/i>\u00a0calls \u201cstrikingly beautiful, distinctive and exhilarating, with expressive vocals that will find a way into hearts and minds,\u201d Ari & Mia reference the styles of Southern and Northeastern fiddle music and the early American songbook to create a realm where their own compositions cross paths with older traditions. Their stylish and sophisticated music honors the sounds of Appalachian cottages, rural dance floors, and urban concert halls. Combine this with their innovative approach to songwriting and the result is a captivating sound, compellingly evident in their new album,\u00a0Sew The City<\/em>, due out March 1, 2019.\u00a0 The duo is composed of sisters, Ariel and Mia Friedman.<\/p>\n