HOLY MATTER — to release her debut album Beauty Looking Back
Holy Matter is the pseudonym of Leanna Kaiser, a musician and experimental filmmaker living in Los Angeles. Beauty Looking Back is her debut album. Originally from St Louis, Kaiser co-founded ambient duo Frances With Wolves before moving out west to study filmmaking. Kaiser spent the next several years performing her work using loop pedals, guitar, voice, and keyboard. All the while she stayed busy making music videos with Jessica Pratt, Allegra Krieger, Dean Wareham, Papercuts, and more.
Named after a painting by Hishikawa Moronobu, Beauty Looking Back finds Kaiser exploring the changing seasons of life and the passage of time. Whether through the autumnal psych-folk of “Autumn’s Envy”, the tropicalia of “Wishing Well”, the hypnagogic “Eve’s Hollywood”, or the cathartic crescendo of “Lore Green and Blue”, Kaiser traverses the concepts of time unfolding and moving full circle through the album.
“Beauty Looking Back seems an appropriate album title because this is a collection of backwards looks, a survey of emotions and moments, written between 2020 and 2023. I think a lot about the past, how a life is built up of all that came before it. There is a comfort in nostalgia, as the future can seem so uncertain. But really everything is cyclical, when it comes down to it,” says Kaiser.
Fittingly, the album features contributions from Kaiser’s collaborators past and present, drawing from both her circle in Los Angeles and her origins in St Louis. Former Frances With Wolves bandmate Andy Kahn contributes keyboards, guitar, and bass, while Kate Bollinger contributes backing vocals, and Kaiser’s partner Matt Popieluch (Big Search) contributes classical guitar, 12-string guitar, and violin.
One song in particular, “The Spirit of St Louis” ties it all together in a particularly meaningful way. “Andy, Matt and I are all playing guitar at the same time, so it’s such a mixture of my past and present, and all our parts really intertwine in this lovely soft way. It’s about coming to terms with myself, acknowledging past parts of me that haven’t been so pleasant and trying to make sense of it all,” says Kaiser.
Meanwhile, executive producer David Glasebrook (Patti Smith, Michael Nau, Sugar Candy Mountain) mixed and mastered the album, bringing a few of his collaborators into the fold, including drummer Raphi Gottesman (Sonny & The Sunsets) and upright bassist Josh Housh (Michael James Tapscott).
The bulk of the album was tracked by Kaiser at her home studio in Los Angeles, with a handful of overdubs done at Santo Recording in Oakland, CA, and at The Sinkhole in St Louis with engineer Matt Stuttler.
Looking back on her debut album Kaiser says, “Holy Matter comes from Leonard Cohen’s novel Beautiful Losers, which had a big impact on me after the first read. There’s one passage that has stayed with me since - a page with the repeated mantra ‘I change; I am the same.’ This is perhaps the best description of what this album is about.”
Holy Matter "Beauty Looking Back" lyrics.pdf
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Holy Matter "Beauty Looking Back" track notes.pdf
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Holy Matter "Beauty Looking Back" credits.pdf
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Releases
- Out Now - "Wishing Well" single / video release (see link below)
- Out Now - "Eve's Hollywood" single / video release (see link below)
- Out Now - "Autumn's Envy" single / video release (see link below)
- Out Now - "Prince Gloom" single release
- August 30th 2024 - "The Dove" single / video release
- October 4th 2024 - Beauty Looking Back worldwide digital and US physical release
- December 13th 2024 - Beauty Looking Back UK/EU physical release
- Bandcamp Link https://holymatter.bandcamp.com/album/beauty-looking-back
- Label - Royal Oakie Records
- Album formats - Vinyl, CD, Digital
Album Release Show
Holy Matter celebrates the release of her debut solo album Beauty Looking Back, with the album performed live in full by a six-piece band. RSVP.
Plus special guest Sam Burton.
Friday October 4th 2024
Gold Diggers
5632 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Tickets https://dice.fm/event/q2nn7x-holy-matter-w-sam-burton-4th-oct-gold-diggers-los-angeles-tickets
For further info...
