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Happy Release Day! I am so pleased to announce the good news that after 9 months of slow burning and dedicated work, my new album is now LIVE on BandcampSpotifyApple MusicYouTube and all the rest of the digital music channels

Also out is the first critical review of the project published on Americana Highways by John Apice, here are a few highlights:

“I’m not here to be sorry,” from Lucia Comnes’ “Soul On a Journey,” grips the way many mainstream songs today do not. She has a beautiful melody, sings it with melancholy strength & surrounds it with gnarly guitars & a haunting backup. That’s a song best served with sophistication

She draws from the vocalizing greenhouse of Peggy Lee, Patti Page, Connie Francis & Natalie Cole. Smoothly delivered rather than tightrope walks on range & power…

“You Lift Me Up,” is contemporary & commercial — but the arrangement is tight & the lyrics aren’t your typical American cliché-posturing. The music does “lift you up” the way The Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up,” did. Her songs ooze with liquor found in a piece of dark chocolate…


Read the full review here:
https://americanahighways.org/2023/09/06/review-lucia-comnes-have-we-met-before/

Read the review by Folking.com here:

Purchase and download the album on Bandcamp:
https://luciacomnes.bandcamp.com/album/have-we-met-before

Places to listen online:
Pick your preferred platform: https://cmdshft.ffm.to/HWMB
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/49XcJF41rW8lGhF5o3I4HE
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/it/album/have-we-met-before/1704032003
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n5TBM4JwTgqhef_xsdup3ooVC07oyqEhY

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‘Have We Met Before?’ is the title track from Lucia Comnes’ new solo album, an enticing male-female harmony vocal duet featuring Jefferson Hamer, acoustic guitar, dobro solo, strings section with violin and viola parts, electric bass, shaker and tambourine; steady-paced romantic ballad that you can dance to – a conversation between adults who were lovers in their youth, equal parts anticipation, humor and sentimentality. Co-written by Jefferson and Lucia while in the studio, the song wasn’t meant to be soppy romantic but it’s brought many a tear to the eye of the mature listener. Maybe that’s a signature trait of Comnes and Hamer singing a duet in harmony? The song is about coming to terms with mid-life, past relationships and feelings that arise when we reconnect with someone we used to know that are completely unexpected and exciting, as inconvenient as they might be at times. The full album will be released September 7th.

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New music from Lucia Comnes coming soon… in a solo album ‘Have We Met Before?’ produced by Jefferson Hamer and recorded at Crinale Lab in Brisighella, Italy.

The first single of the album ‘Stay in the Feeling’ is now available for purchase on Bandcamp and will release on all digital channels this May 19, 2023

https://luciacomnes.bandcamp.com/track/stay-in-the-feeling

Subscribe to Lucia’s YouTube channel to see the music video for ‘Stay in the Feeling’ that releases May 24, 2023

Album Announcement:

Bicontinental singer-songwriter, fiddler, and guitarist Lucia Comnes seventh album release “Have We Met Before?” slotted for July 2023, is a collection of 9 original songs centered around themes of introspection, self-love, truth-telling in relationships and exploring the feminine gaze – Comnes’ own take on ‘the female gaze’ theory. Currently a resident in Lucca, Italy, but born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Comnes builds on the tone set in her last solo album ‘uncaged’ with songs that are both reflective and declarative, personal and universal. Produced by Jefferson Hamer from Brooklyn New York, who is also featured on the album, the band was led by guitarist from Lucca, Italy – Luca Giovacchini, with Roberto Villa on bass and Diego Sapignoli on drums. It was recorded live at Crinale Lab in December 2022.

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‘Restless’ New Single + Music Video Release

January 27th, 2022 by Lucia Comnes
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Restless is a new single composed by Lucia Comnes and produced by Gawain Mathews. The music video was filmed in between the two bays of Sestri Levante, Italy. Just north of the Cinque Terre, this quaint seaside town on the coast of Liguria is home to the Baia di Silenzio (Bay of Silence), not far from where Lucia spent the Covid lockdown year in Italy. It is a song about reclaiming power. The track can be downloaded on Bandcamp.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Music and all other digital channels here.

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https://luciacomnes.bandcamp.com/album/rebirth

Track Titles
1. Goodbye (4:10)
2. Spring (4:49)
3. Baia (5:14)
4. Nini Bali* (3:43)
5. Politics* (5:52)
6. Incantata (4:14)
7. Rebirth (5:28)

Internationally renowned artists, Lucia Comnes and Karamo Susso, reunite after 10 years to collaborate on an instrumental album “REBIRTH” featuring acoustic violin and kora (release date: July 8, 2021). A collection of 7 original compositions, centered around the themes of friendship, loss, transcendence and new beginnings. Bringing together ancient West African griot traditions with European and American roots music, this album bridges worlds through polyrhythms, improvisation, melodic conversation and authentic heartfelt expression. An experimental project and true artistic collaboration, each track also features guest performances on guitar, upright bass, piano and percussion by producer Gawain Mathews (Mickey Hart Band). From the bluesy opening track ‘Goodbye’ to the gentle lullaby of ‘Baia’ to the thick grooves of ‘Politics’ and ‘Rebirth’, these songs are energizing, relaxing, enchanting and soothing all at once. Inspired by places and events in Comnes’ and Susso’s lives, devoted listeners will enjoy references to Mali, The Gambia, Liguria – Italy and the San Francisco Bay Area of California where these tracks were recorded in spring 2021, just as the world was emerging from a full year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Credits
All compositions by Lucia Comnes, except those with ‘*’ which are written by Karamo Susso.
All songs co-produced by Comnes and Mathews.
Violin on all tracks performed by Comnes.
Kora on all tracks performed by Susso.
Acoustic guitar, upright and electric bass, piano and percussion performed by Mathews.
Recorded in San Pablo, California, USA. Engineered, mixed and mastered by Mathews.
All songs copyright © Lucia Comnes / Delfina Records 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Album artwork by Sharon Virtue.


REBIRTH Album Notes

“This album is dedicated to my new violin, handmade in Parma, Italy, by French luthier, Patrick Labrot in 1989. An unexpected turn of events during the coronavirus pandemic brought this violin into my life – a rare instrument based on the Guarneri del Gesù model that I had desired since playing it for the first time in Labrot’s workshop in 2018. Much of the music was composed during the winter of strict Covid-19 restrictions from 2020-2021, where I set up a pop-up studio in my temporary home of Sestri Levante, a charming fishing village south of Genoa on the Italian Riviera. I spent many quiet days on the thin strip of sand (previously a promontory) between the Baia del Silenzio (Bay of Silence) and the Baia delle Favole (Bay of the Fables), named in honor of Danish writer, Hans Christian Andersen, who lived there for a short time in 1833. It was a magical place where one might imagine encountering mermaids. This is my first completely instrumental album, and I approached it as an experiment and a challenge. I couldn’t have asked for a more inspired team – Gawain and Karamo welcomed the invitation to collaborate and are two of the most prolific and talented artists I have ever worked with. As a trio we embarked on this exploration together, bridging African, American and European traditions through original compositions and authentic expression.” – Lucia Comnes, June 2021


Artist Bios

Lucia Comnes is an American singer and violinist who interprets songs from many traditions, a composer and songwriter, and an artistic director who has produced three albums and a myriad of musical collaborations in the Bay Area and internationally. A San Francisco native with a rich background in performance, travel and ethnomusicology, her focus has been American roots, Irish/Celtic traditions and Balkan/Eastern European folk music. www.luciacomnes.com

Karamo Susso is a griot* and kora** master, the 74th generation in an unbroken griot family lineage in Mali where he was raised fully immersed in an ancient tradition. He learned kora from world-renowned players like his uncle, Ballake Sissoko and his neighbor, Toumani Diabate, as well as studying and later teaching kora at the Institut Nationale des Artes in Bamako, Mali. He moved to the US in 2009 and runs a studio in The Gambia called Kapamis Productions.

*“A griot (gree-oh) is the keeper of the West African oral tradition and the tribe’s genealogy through poetic songs. Griots are poets, musicians, historians and genealogists – if you combine Joseph Campbell, Bob Dylan, Studs Terkel and County Hall of Birth Records – you got a griot. The instrument at the center of this musical tradition is the kora, a 21-string harp-lute.” – Bob Holman in ‘On the Road with Bob Holman: The Griots of West Africa’ 

** The kora is a 21-stringed harp lute of West Africa that originated in the ancient Kingdom of Mali more than one thousand years ago. Tradition tells that djinns (spirits) brought it into this world and gave it to the griots. The griots played kora and sang in court to praise the kings, and in the villages to carry news and to celebrate traditional ceremonies. The music is intricate, elegant, and potent.  Centuries of complex tradition are heard in the songs, as are simple truths.

Lucia & Karamo were introduced in the Bay Area in 2009 and began collaborating for numerous performances and recordings. They co-wrote the single “Potpourri,” which was produced into a music video by Aaron Proctor (FWD:labs) in 2010 and can be viewed on Youtube and online at: www.drymypetals.com