Elizaveta Ephemeris

My new album is out

I won't lie, last few weeks have been tough.

I have been dealing with family matters as well as some pretty wrenching self doubt.

But the show must go on, and this is an album I am proud to set free into the big world out there.

There are a few videos to follow, as soon as a few days from now.

And for now, the album has been released on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/messenger/id996073887

I hope I can keep going and do some great things - but I also hope the music may just speak for itself.

I am in Moscow, spending some time with my mother - and onwards to London in a week's time, with three more shows left - London, L.A. and San Francisco.

 

 

Trap (lyrics)

Trap

 

If you could only see

I couldn’t love you more

If you belong to me

I’ll hold you

I’ll keep you

 

But I get so hypnotized

I’m lost

I’m paralyzed

I want to hear your lies

You choke me

You bleed me

 

I want to die

When I feel you inside my mind

 

Hearts weren’t meant to last

Breathing the broken glass           

Tell me it’s going to pass

You’ll need me

You’ll heal me

 

I want to die

When I feel you inside my mind

 

If I loved you more than life

Wouldn’t matter if you died

I’ll follow you

I’ll carry you

I’ll try to make it beautiful again

Without the lies, without the pain

Cause in my heart, I know we’ll reunite

 

I want to die

When I feel you inside my mind

I want to cry

Cause I know I’ve run out of time

 

These moments in time I knew you were mine

Take me, forgive me

Love me, believe me

It drives me insane

I know - it's only a game

Take me, forgive me

Love me, believe me

This is a trap and I know it will kill me.

 

Here we go (almost)

I know, it's so like me - to post a cliffhanger and then leave this blog empty and echoing.

But I was busy! (excuses, excuses).

And so here are some dates and goodies:

As you can see above, this is the cover for my upcoming album 'Messenger'. The single 'Trap' will go live on iTunes worldwide June 1st, and the entire album will be available for pre-order. Oh yes, and a really awesome remix of 'Trap' will be available, too. The full album will go live June 29, 2015.

Track list has been updated, and here it is:

1. Trap

2. Messenger (feat. Great Caesar)

3. Familiar

4. Time of Your Life

5. Icarus

6. Satellite

7. These Stupid Games

8. Bella Anima

9. Space Pirate's Love Song

10. Trap (J Paul Mix)

This is very much my album, in the sense that it's multi genre and yet, I am hoping, there is a thread running through it. It sits somewhere in between Beatrix Runs and Hero in scope. I'll do some detailed entries on the songs and their stories later (yes, I will - pinky swear!)

This album, unlike Hero and more like Beatrix Runs, has a number of pure acoustic moments - but also gets its share of majestic and choral. Generally speaking, it's quite organic and has a lot of piano in it. More than half the tracks - or at least their foundations were recorded live, as in: me, playing piano and singing at the same time.

That brings me to THE TOUR: Look at the right hand column and you will find my tour dates for this summer, or some of them (since we are adding more soon). I'll be performing in New York, Moscow, London, L.A. & San Francisco over the course of two months, so make sure you come and partake, if you are in the area.

 

What else? I will be the voice of the Tavern Bard for Dragon Age again this year, so that's fun:)

OK, I am off to do more work. 

PS: the source image for the cover is by a wonderful artist I discovered recently, whose name is Eugenia Loli. Google her and partake of her work because she is remarkable - and this cover will get a blog entry all its very own quite soon.

My album is done!!!!!

And here's a late night poem. I'll write more later with all the details.

 

 

 

A time to write, my cup is full, 
I hug the night, I call its bluff -
you cannot hide, my other half, 
I hear you call; I've set my sail.

From dusk till dawn where lovers live
where stardust gathers at the crack
between what's lost and what we give
I'll find you there - I'll bring you back

 

A time to write, the moon is high
it sings and whispers me to sleep
I'm dreaming as I slip away
while streetlights sway and shadows creep

I'm full of hope, I'm blessed by words
tomorrow is a gift to claim
Just wait for me, my other half:
I hear you call; I've set my sail.

More dragon love:)

I've had a busy few weeks. The album is almost ready, it's being mixed, actually. Mixing is always so emotional and drives me crazy. All the weaknesses of the tracks become obvious, and sometimes you know exactly what needs to be done, while other times you are lost and are searching for the words in the dark, which must seriously frustrate my mixing engineer.

As I may have mentioned earlier, I sang a bunch of songs for Dragon Age Inqusition, which is a pretty cool role-playing video game. The songs were not part of the official soundtrack, but the fans of the game loved them so much, they kept asking the developers to release them separately. Lo and behold, Bioware, the game's developer gave in after a few months of the enthusiasm and is now releasing an official album:) There are ten songs. By the way, they just announced today that they are giving them away for free together with sheet music for two weeks, and also holding a fan contest. Get them HERE.

In the meantime, I filmed and recorded a couple of the songs I sang in-game, for your pleasure. The music and lyrics are by a good friend of mine, a very talented composer Raney Schockne:

Enchanter

 

And here is a song about a cheeky girl-warrior:

 

I had a fantastic show a week ago, here are a couple of pics:

Happy New Year!

So my birthday came and went, and now it's already the 4th day of 2015. Is it just me or time has sped up once again? I guess it's more important than ever to be mindful and present otherwise the time will just pass you by and one day you'll wake up, thinking: 'What is this? How did I get here? This is not the right place-person-house-country-job... what??'

That said, I have great hopes for 2015, but it all depends on me. Can I steer my ship proudly out of harbors into the open ocean? Can I navigate my way to the magical archipelago of Dreams? Well, you get the idea. No wonder I was obsessed with pirate and oceanography books when I was little. Life is travel. We journey through time and space, although in reality we may not be going anywhere at all. Some people need maps, others can do it by stars. Which one am I in the end?

In the meantime, I am working on the acoustic album once again, and it's almost finished. More on that and my collaboration with a really cool band on its first single later.

I am also almost done with my first Japanese language single, which is a duet. I know it took me ages, but I guess I am one of those people - I may not get to something for the longest time, but eventually I do get there. I suppose I am more of a tortoise than hare - a late bloomer.

Same thing with my Chinese effort - Odi et Amo in Chinese will be done and released by the end of this month.

Anyway, the good news is that I am going to post an acoustic video of an original or cover every week for the next couple of months leading up to the release of the acoustic album.

Here are the first two: Titanium (Sia + David Guetta)

 

I have loved this song for a while - it speaks to me in many ways, especially how much stronger I want to be in general. Titanium is also a very light material, you see - so although it's incredibly resistant, it's also not heavy, which is what makes it so special. Strength, but lightness of being - I have desired this state for a while now.

And here is Blank Space by Taylor Swift. When I first heard this song, I went immediately to check the lyrics to make sure I had not misheard. This song is incredibly dark, lyrically, It's about obsession and recurring destructive patterns of behavior. It's also about never really settling, not being able to fully engage, apart from the storm of initial attraction - and so you end up with a 'blank space' over and over again. The original is so upbeat that it's easy to miss this. I loved that too, since I also often couch sadness into jaunty melodies. Anyway, here is my take on it:

 

 

 

Onwards

I got a little burned out and spent the last day and a half basically being a vegetable and watching a lot of Japanese animation. Yeah, I am a geek, what can I say. When I have time, I'll take good anime over pretty much any TV or film stuff. It's probably no surprise then, that my new version of Dreamer I just recorded in Japanese (live video to follow shortly) sounds like something from the opening credits of an anime.

I need to get back to work tomorrow and give it one big final push until Christmas and my birthday roll around in a week and a half's time.

The energy feels odd these days. There is a lot of tension in the air. It feels like systems and structures are either breaking down or are at their limits. There have been two big shoot-outs and hostage situations in the last 48 hours. Maybe I am also afraid whether I can live up to what 2015 has in store for me.

I am also worried about Russia and its economy. I feel terrible about Ukraine and where it's headed in 2015. I don't understand the glee I often encounter online, Twitter and Facebook when it comes to economical woes of countries. I don't find it funny when pundits compete with each other for the pithiest tweet on the subject. Don't people understand that at some level, *all* the rich and powerful of the world are always ok? It's the normal, regular people who suffer when a currency goes way down or when sanctions are applied. It's the old people who have to survive on their measly pensions - children who don't get proper healthcare or education - nurses and musicians who don't get paid - and so on.

I also don't understand blanket hate and derision. I don't understand when someone posts under my audio for 'Hero' a comment: "F**ck all Russians". 

Anyway. I think it's time I took a long break from all news and internet-related things.

And here are a couple of videos we shot recently, when I was in the studio, recording.

This is 'Marshmallow World' - one of my fav Christmas songs:

 

We kind of went overboard with Santa hats, but hey - sometimes you just need to be silly.

And this is 'Silent Night', in Russian:

 

I am going to take a couple of days off internet and work on music. Enjoy and see you soon...x

perfect storms

I am writing this, while I am laying in bed. Southern California has been finally blessed by the weather gods and we got another storm, courtesy of Hawaii. The Pineapple Express is drenching the city and the L.A. river, for once, looks like a river. I am happy for the plants and the hills.

This was a long and pretty intense week, as I was also fighting off a cold. We shot and recorded a bunch more live videos, some of which will go up shortly. Christmas songs, yea. And others.

I recorded some songs on Dragon Age Inquisition (video game) and recently it's been fun getting all the positive feedback from the fans.

We also laid down some foundation for the official "Hero" video this weekend. Without revealing too much yet, this is going to be epic and so much fun. Hint: swords, storyboards, epic adventure and cloaks to be involved.

 

Here is one of the songs I sang for Dragon Age, by the way. It's quite fun and mischivious:

 

In any case, as I am writing this, the sun is coming out. I am feeling contented, although tired. There's a lot of work ahead before my birthday and the year's end. But I am feeling hopeful and accomplished. Hard work, passion and faith will get me there.

 

Spy Satellites

So, as a little heads up, I will be launching a brand new music side project soon. It's called Spy Satellites and it will be All Electro All The Time. What that means is that this will be my electronic music project. I am excited about it because it has a significantly different sound. We already have the first single in place, it's getting mixed, and we're looking to make a video for it very soon, too.

This morning I am rather grumpy because I dropped my iPhone into a cup of tea as I randomly woke up in the wee hours of the morning and was checking the time. Fingers crossed it will dry out and be as good as new - because it IS new - my old one was washed in the washing machine prior to my departure for Russia. I am never this clumsy, I have no idea what is happening.

I'll just choose to believe that something amazing is around the corner and this is a way to get any kinks out of the way. Yeah, yeah, I know. But I have to believe something other than that I have to get a new iPhone.

 

Saying hi live!

Well, not as romantic as a train, but from my mom's kitchen in Moscow!