Terrorbird

One year ago, Hecuba began work on Paradise. On the walls of their studio hung pictures of Charles Ives, Walt Disney, Michael Jackson, Wendy Carlos, Aaron Copeland and Karen Carpenter. Outside the studio was the sprawling modern Los Angeles'both Paradise and Paradise Lost. It is within this landscape that Hecuba invented the stories and sounds that became this record. When they were finished, they had 10 powerful, straightforward songs brimming with synthesizers, strings, horns and melodies that could have been made by no one else. Paradise had taken shape. With the tracks completed and fully polished, Hecuba put down the microphone and got out the chisel. They sculpted their likenesses in stone and then broke them to pieces. Halfway through, they took the photos that became the album's cover. Two heads, battered but strong, look you in the eye. There is something equally inviting and challenging about the heads. Like the album they embody, they have a classical form, but are uncannily contemporary'almost as if they came from another time and place.

Hecuba's Paradise is a vibrant record with broad strokes and intense details. It is Visual Music that speaks through images. In the song "Miles Away", a group of flutes becomes an ambulance siren. On "Tom & Jerry," a synth smack is a cartoon cat's fist. A dissonant choir embodies a woman's unconscious thoughts in "Extra Connection," and a detached, automated voice morphs into a bare, screaming saxophone in The Magic". As comfortable on the dance floor as in the concert hall, Paradise moves from sparse, introspective moments to harsh, violent crashes and syncopated beats; from Ranchero trumpet blasts to full on orchestral pop, and 50's crooner electro-bop techno doo-wop. Even with such a stylistic range and new ideas at every turn, the record remains pure and incisive. The story of Paradise permeates throughout. It is something the characters inhabiting these songs long for, have, and lose. It is in the beauty and clarity of the sounds and the depth of the darkness beneath them.

Hecuba is Isabelle Albuquerque and Jon Beasley. Albuquerque met Beasley when she was cast as the main role in a science fiction film he was making. They began collaborating on music immediately, and became Hecuba in 2006. They were first recognized for their powerful and fearless live performances. In 2008, Hecuba released the precursor to Paradise, Sir, an EP where the duo inhabited the archetypal roles of cat and mouse (Tom & Jerry) caught in an endless cycle of romance and violence. Sir is a wildly adventurous cartoon world filled with extreme shifts in emotion and style that concludes with a whacked-out remix by Lucky Dragons. Sir appeared in many college radio charts, year-end lists and DJ crates. Over the past few years, Hecuba have toured extensively with notable appearances at the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art, the Hammer Museum, South by Southwest, and CMJ. They are currently in production on a series of extraordinary music videos, an ambitious remix project, and a collaborative Sci-fi opera involving emerging technology, and will be appearing in a series of tours and live performances throughout the year.