“Blanket” by Bachelorette

Annabel Alpers [photo by Mike Hughes]

“The only way to see you is through the whole in my chest” sings Bachelorette, AKA Annabel Alpers on “Blanket”

The throbbing, pulsating synth-heavy “Blanket” is from the last Bachelorette album, a self-titled release on Drag City Records from 2011.

Formerly of Christchurch, NZ and living in Baltimore in the US for the past 4 years, Annabel Alpers – ex-Bachelorette” – is crowdfunding for an intriguing sounding new recording project called “Remote”

This project is about exploring the beauty of sound, to create a live sonic experience that encompasses you, the audience, and is as cathartic for you to listen to as it is for me to make. I’m inspired by the beauty of my remote homeland, New Zealand, which I miss so much when I’m away.  I’m also inspired to find beauty in parts of everyday life – patterns and forms, mundanity, longing, excitement, nature (tamed and untamed), connections, fragility… (the list is endless) – and attempt to communicate this awe to you, through music.

Remote is a live, multiple-speaker, surround-sound experience. My intention is for you to be enveloped in beautiful sounds and emerge from your comfortable listening space transformed – your heart aflutter… 

‘Strawberry Hair’ by Shunkan

Shunkan’s ‘Strawberry Hair’ is from an EP-length release which has been out since June. It’s a track from シュンカン I

It’s a departure from the debut EP “Honey, Blood & Milk” in that, in place of the DIY soaring ‘shoegaze’ pop, it features atmospheric electronica soundscapes, like something from a perpetual after-midnight world. But it’s no departure from “Honey, Blood & Milk” in the way it subverts a genre and creates something original and magical from what may have appeared familiar components at first.

In case you haven’t followed earlier PopLib posts on this artist, Shunkan is Marina Sakimoto, a 20 year old resident of Invercargill, but originally from Los Angeles (weird as that all sounds). Her band version of Shunkan is currently a three-guitar shoegaze maelstrom when they play live. But, as ‘Strawberry Hair’, the “Honey, Blood & Milk” EP and the ‘SUMMERBLONDE’ collection below demonstrate, Marina has an uncanny talent for crafting sublime & other-worldly pop of all shades and styles.

If you want an idea of just how good Marina Sakimoto (Shunkan) is, then check out her home recordings and demos collected here as SUMMERBLONDE and particularly the striking “goodbye future nothing, for you do not exist” or the following track “youuu”.

Marina has a ‘Spark My Potential’ fundraising campaign to gather enough to record Shunkan’s debut album “The Pink Noise” and acquire some basic backline gear to tour with. It’s a realistic amount – just $5,000 – and she’s half way there already with a few more weeks to run. Your commitment of even a modest amount towards it can help get it over the line and help ensure the album happens.

I have committed to it – Marina is a songwriter & musician I’d love to hear more from. I admire her ambition and determination and also her desire to have control over her recordings through being able to pay for them herself.