Julia Biel, new album and UK and European tour.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Vocalist and songwriter Julia Biel will release her long awaited second album ?Love Letters and Other Missiles? on March 30th 2015. She will be touring extensively in the UK and Europe from Feb 18.

JULIA BIEL
?Love Letters and Other Missiles’
RELEASE DATE: 30.03.2015
LABEL: Rokit
DISTRIBUTION: Proper

An artist whose touring schedule has been packed with dates at major European Jazz Festivals for the past year, Julia Biel’s name has been slower to get out on her home turf here in the UK.  With this new album, all that should surely change. 

‘Love Letters and Other Missiles’ by Julia Biel features twelve self-penned songs, four of which were included in an EP released last year to much excitement on the continent and the full support of one Jamie Cullum.  Declaring ?I love her voice,  I love her songs.  I haven’t listened to a lot else this week I have to say?, on his BBC Radio 2 show, and featuring the four songs as well as inviting Julia and her band in to legendary Maida Vale studios to do an exclusive recording session for his radio show. And Jamie Cullum’s track record as a talent spotter has certainly been on the money in the past ? previous artists to receive comparably enthusiastic endorsements from him, Laura Mvula and Gregory Porter, have gone on to establish enviable global careers and Julia Biel who is captivating audiences wherever she goes with her conversationally poetic lyrics, distinctive delivery and deftly woven brand of barbed love songs could be poised for a similarly meteoric rise. 

The first full album release since ?Not Alone’ in 2005 (written in collaboration with guitarist Jonny Phillips), ?Love Letters and Other Missiles’ reveals an artist stepping fully out into the limelight and making a bold musical statement.  Julia Biel is redefining the context for a jazz vocal in today’s world no less, whilst creating something at once unique and comfortingly familiar.  Mashing up jazz, old soul and 60s/70s British rock influences into her own distinctive brew, ‘Love Letters and Other Missiles’, produced and arranged by Idris Rahman alongside Julia herself, also benefits from a contemporary alt-pop spin that is unfailingly turning heads and gaining her a loyal fan-base. 

Stylistically traversing intimate analogue landscapes through to wide-angle guitar-layered sonic sunbursts, this is jazz/pop music for adults, a sound for the connoisseur of contemporary music, and an overall style that reveals hidden depths the more you listen. The lyrical content is often raw, emotional yet beautifully penned, the vocal delivery is sultry and the end result is music to lose yourself in. 

Featuring a powerhouse rhythm section in the shape of Sebastian Rochford (Mercury Prize nominated bandleader/drummer of POLAR BEAR) on drums and Jasper Hoiby (band-leader/bass-player of the globe-trotting act PHRONESIS) on electric bass as well as a whole host of other luminaries of the London scene, the new album showcases Julia’s evolution into a singer, pianist, guitarist and songwriter of formidable class. 

For more information on Julia Biel please visit:
http://www.juliabiel.com
http://www.hoppermanagement.com
Or follow Julia on Facebook: juliabielmusic - Twitter: @JuliaBiel

TOUR DATES:

February 18, 2015 GB, Chichester - Chichester Minerva Theatre
February 28, 2015 D, Minden - Jazz Club
March 03, 2015 D, Erlangen - E-Werk
March 04, 2015 D, M?nchen - Unterfahrt
March 05, 2015 A, Salzburg - Jazzit Musik Club
March 06, 2015 D, Regensburg - Leerer Beutel
March 07, 2015 NL, Maastricht - AINSI
March 09, 2015 D, Hamburg - Nochtspeicher
March 21, 2015 E, Terrassa - Nova Jazz Cava
March 28, 2015 N, Voss - Vossa Jazz Festival
April 18, 2015 GB, Great Torrington - The Plough Arts Centre
May 6, 2015 GB, London ? Pizza Express Jazz Club
May 9, 2015 GB, Chipping Norton ? Chipping Norton Theatre
June 06, 2015 GB, Oxford - The North Wall Arts Centre
July 02. + 03, 2015 I, Bolzano - S?d Tirol Jazz Festival
July 10, 2015 F, Saint-Louis - STIMMEN15 - Teatre La Coupole
July 31, 2015 D, Hassloch - Hofgel?nde des ?ltesten Haus
August 01, 2015 D, Friedrichshafen - Kulturufer
August 09, 2015 GB, Brecon ? Jazz Festival