Hailing from the UK, The Lonely Harps Club has signed with Epictronic a deal for the release of the debut album “Long Game”, due for digital release on 14 05 2021.
Band comment:
“I am extremely proud of The Lonely Harps Club’s debut but I couldn’t have made this album without Carlo Bellotti and Riccardo Daga’s incredible arranging and production, not to mention my partner Arthur Rei, who plays shamisen, viola and keys and co-wrote one of the tracks. Whilst The Lonely Harps Club is my stage name, I like to think that everyone involved in the project and the fans who have come this far with me are all members. I hope you laugh and maybe cry with me in places when you listen to The Lonely Harps Club’s debut. After all, if we’re in this club together, then we can hardly be so alone now, can we?”
Regarding The Lonely Harps Club, Julia Mascetti commented:
“I remember sitting in youth orchestra as a teenager, watching the banter in the brass section and the operatic levels of drama amongst the violins and thinking, “Just me here, my little Lonely Harps Club of one.” As a harpist, you’re often the only person in your section, and you have a lot of rests so I had time to come up with puns to amuse myself (and sometimes miss my entries).
It’s poetic, then, that even though the harp is often an individualistic instrument, The Lonely Harps Club is a project that is all about collaboration. When I chose to leave Japan I was at a crossroads. My musical lives as the singer in Gjöll and a folk-pop harpist in Tokyo were coming to an end. I had been writing songs and I wanted to make a daring, funny, pop album that combined all my influences, but I knew I couldn’t do it alone.
I Skyped with Carlo Bellotti from Epictronic and told him I was returning to Europe and I wanted to make a solo album. Carlo agreed to consider my material and I sent him super rough demos I recorded surrounded by boxes as I packed up my flat in Tokyo. Only a couple of months after arriving back in the UK, I drove across Europe with my pedal harp to record the album in Italy.”
Artwork by Isabel Galwey
1. Nommunication
2. Spin
3. Neuschmerz
4. Purple Flowers
5. In Bloom
6. SAD
7. Long Game
8. Magical Girls
9. Who the Hell Are You?
10. Dilettante
11. Left
12. Courageous
The Lonely Harps Club is a harp-driven art pop project created by British harpist and songwriter Julia Mascetti. The project’s debut album is due for release in May 2021.
Julia grew up singing in choirs and began playing the harp aged 11, influenced by her Welsh heritage. A lifelong fan of classical and folk music, as a young adult she became drawn to a darker aesthetic and heavier music. At the age of 22, she moved to Japan and joined the metal band Gjöll, with whom she performed for two years and recorded one EP, Residual. She also self-released a folk-pop EP, “In Distance, Everything is Poetry,” to a sell-out release party in Japan and favourable reviews in 2017. After returning to the UK in 2019, Julia signed with Epictronic and began work on a project that would combine all of these influences and more. Expect cerebral yet infectiously catchy pop that counts female pioneers such as Kate Bush and Björk amongst its influences, as well as the dark undertones of hard rock and metal, and even hints of spoken word and trip hop.
Add deft and witty lyricism befitting Julia’s parallel career as a writer and marketer into the mix, and The Lonely Harps Club promises a debut you won’t want to miss.
https://www.facebook.com/lonelyharpsclub/
https://www.facebook.com/epictronic/
