The talents of Nicole Willis and Jimi Tenor were first brought together by Nicole's solo project back in August 1999. Since then the two have been touring and working together. Nicole told me about the recording of Jimi Tenor's new album "Out of Nowhere". The album was recorded in Poland in autumn 1999 and we can expect it to be somewhat different from Jimi's previous work as it is done with a big orchestra. "I believe he got to witness many of his dreams fulfilled in having worked with the orchestra. Many thanks to them!" says Nicole. Rehearsals took place in Lodz with the local opera house orchestra. "It seemed to be their first pop music experience, to which they had assorted reactions. The percussionist was entertaining as he got into the groove." They rehearsed with the orchestra for three days, ten hours a day with breaks of course. "They loved to feed you! There was quite a scene when we returned some sandwiches which they thought we were rejecting to the cafe! The kitchen staff even had a word with the leader of the orchestra about it..." During they stay in Lodz they met with their friends Lary Seven, archive photographer for the Warhol foundation, noise musician and schlager enthusiast, and Russell Haswell, art curator, proprietor of 'Or' Records and international nomad.
"They were late upon arriving from Berlin so we started to get worried. However, once they got there, Lary took some clever 3-D photos with his Russian cameras (for album art) and Russ captured some humorous footage on DVD (for future videos) and some excellent outtakes which he tinkered with his 'Metasynth' software (which will be used as segways on the album)." The talent of the respected Indian musician Baluji Shrivastav will also be heard on the album. He played tabla, sitar and even 'rapped' and was, according to Nicole, "Quite a Gentleman." After the gruelling rehearsals, the actual recording took place at Polskie Radio, Warsaw and was concluded with a raucous vodka party with conductor Tadeusz Kozlowski and orchestra director Marcin Krzynowski. "It was quite a blast!" Ilkka Mattila, who has been working with Jimi Tenor since the Shamans days, joined them to record the guitar parts for the album and Wanda Pittman, Nicole and Jimi did some backing vocals. Studio work continued after the Warp 10th anniversary show in London at Mute studios. Among the guests were drummers Caroline Boaden from previous Jimi Tenor recordings and Mikey Wilson of Texas, and guitarist Chris Dawkins of LSK. The recording was done by Kevin Paul who also supplied mixes for the probable single release 'Spell'. Out Of Nowhere is out on Warp
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