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Olga Bell

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Olga Bell
Background information
Birth nameOlga Balashova
Born(1983-10-03)October 3, 1983(age 40)
Moscow,Russian SFSR,USSR
OriginAnchorage, Alaska,U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • singer
  • songwriter
  • producer
  • composer
  • remixer
  • video director
Instrument(s)
  • Vocals
  • synthesizer
  • beats
  • piano
Years active2007–present
Labels
Websitebellinspace.com

Olga Bell(bornOlga Balashova,Russian:Ольга Балашова,3 October 1983) is an American musician, music producer, composer, and singer-songwriter. She was born inMoscow,Russia,raised inAnchorage,Alaskaand is currently based inBrooklyn,New York.A classically trained pianist and self-taught electronic music producer, she has worked in a wide range of genres, including classical, electronic pop, and Russian folk. Best known forКрай (Krai),a tribute to her Russian heritage, andDiamonite,an album she produced with Gunnar Olsen and Jason Nazary under the monikerBELL,she has also played inChairliftandDirty Projectorsand collaborated withTom Vekunder the nameNothankyou.In 2016, Bell released her third studio albumTempo.

Early life

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Bell started playing the piano at age seven, after moving with her mother from Moscow to Anchorage, Alaska and made her public debut two years later.[1]Bell's studied under Svetlana Velichko, a former Moscow Conservatory professor andSamuel Feinbergstudent, and at age twelve performed an original composition for piano and orchestra with her hometown Anchorage Symphony. At sixteen, she performed as a concerto soloist with the Anchorage Civic Orchestra.[2]In high school, she attended theAspen Music Festival and Schoolon a scholarship.[3]She was also a fellow of TheBanff Centreand Yale's Norfolk Festival, where she studied withClaude Frankand members of theJuilliard,Tokyo and St. Petersburg String Quartets.[1]

Career

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2005-13: Beginnings andDiamonite

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In August 2005, having graduated from theNew England Conservatorybut not been accepted to theJuilliard School's graduate program, Bell moved to New York City to pursue music outside the classical realm.[4]She bought a laptop and started recording herself, singing into the built-in mic and making beats.[1]From 2005 to 2010, Bell split her time between piano teaching and theater accompaniment gigs and pursuing her new musical project on the side.[1]

As she wrote new material for the project, she performed at open mics and formed a band,BELL,with Jason Nazary, Mike Chiavaro, and Grey McMurray to perform the songs with her.[1][5]In 2007, they self-produced and self-released the six-songBell EP.In 2011, with Chiavaro and McMurray having left the band, Bell worked with Jason Nazary and Gunnar Olsen to produce and release her first full-length album,Diamonite.[6]

Diamonitereceived positive critical reception, withThe New York Timespraising its "bubbly, glitchy electronicpop songs"[7]driven by Bell's "powerful"[4]voice.Consequence of Soundremarked that "while moments onDiamonitemight recall other artists, the band never sounds imitative or even descendant of those influences ".[8]

Aside from her work on her own music, she produced remixes of tracks fromChairlift,Son Lux,Phoenix,Caroline Shaw,and others.[9][10]In 2009 she was selected by composerOsvaldo Golijovand sopranoDawn Upshawfor a workshop and concert atCarnegie Hall.[11]

2013-15:Край (Krai)and Nothankyou

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In 2011, Bell received the Jerome Fund Grant from theAmerican Composers Forumto aid in the completion of her first large-scale compositionКрай (Krai).[4]The album was released to critical acclaim in 2014, following a sold-out live premiere at theWalker Art Center[12]in Minneapolis. Though originally arranged for a twelve-piece electro-acoustic ensemble, it has also been adapted for solo voice with orchestra.Крайwas considered "fresh and new" byThe Daily Telegraph.[13]

During the same period asКрай's recording, Bell pursued side projectNothankyouwith British musicianTom Vek,releasing three dance tracks between 2012-14 throughMoshi Moshi Recordsand independently on Soundcloud.[14]In 2013, she directed a video for their singleOyster.[15]

From 2011 to 2013, Bell toured as a keyboardist and vocalist forChairliftandDirty Projectors.[16]

2015-present:IncitationandTempo

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In mid-2015, Bell toured withSon Luxand premiered live versions of songs fromIncitation,an EP she released onOne Little Indian Recordslater that year, andTempo,a full-length album to be released the following year.[17][18]

On 12 August 2015,Nownesspremiered the video for "Goalie", the last track onIncitation,which Bell co-directed with Christina Ladwig.[19]Bell also worked withNoah Kalinato produce a lyric video for the EP's title track.[20]Incitationwas released on 16 October 2015.Pitchforkcompared it to works byFKA TwigsandBjörk,saying it "has an economy of purpose and more serious bent than her previous electronic work" and praising its "melismatic melodies and damaged electronic architecture" while also lamenting that it "hints in plenty of promising directions but hesitates from going all the way toward them."[21]

On 9 March 2016, Bell released "Randomness", which Pitchfork named Best New Track.[22]After releasing videos for "Randomness" and "ATA", Bell announced thatTempo,her third full-length album would be released on 27 May 2016. OnTempo,Bell explored dance music genres in order to create a record "first for the body, then for the mind."[18]The Quietussaid it "takes the recognisable features of a genre and subverts them, playing on our conceptions of musical familiarity and never letting the audience grow complacent."[23]

In the summer of 2016, Bell toured in the U.S. and Europe supportingChairlift,Empress Of,andYeasayer.[24][25]

Discography

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Studio albums

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EPs

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Singles

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References

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  1. ^abcde"The Muse of Ice: Olga Bell".Paganwood.24 April 2014.Retrieved27 August2015.
  2. ^Dinitz, Ken (15 November 1999)."PIANIST TAKES CIVIC ORCHESTRA TO NEW HEIGHTS".Alaska Dispatch News.Retrieved3 September2015.
  3. ^Rubtsov, Andrey (9 November 2000)."Tsar's Tower Orchestra".AndreyRubtsov.Retrieved3 September2015.
  4. ^abcAnderson, Stacey (30 April 2014)."Breaking From Her Norm to Connect With Her Tradition".The New York Times.Retrieved27 August2015.
  5. ^"Band To Watch: Bell".Stereogum.25 March 2008.Retrieved5 April2016.
  6. ^"Diamonite".Bandcamp.Retrieved5 April2016.
  7. ^Smith, Steve (4 March 2011)."Skipping Through Russia, Lingering in a Biblical Age".The New York Times.Retrieved27 August2015.
  8. ^Mojica, Frank (15 June 2011)."Bell Diamonite".Consequence of Sound.Retrieved27 August2015.
  9. ^Brown, Hannis (26 December 2013)."An 8-Week Series of World Premiere Remixes of Shaw's Pulitzer Prize-Winning 'Partita'".WQXR.Retrieved3 September2015.
  10. ^"Olga Bell - Soundcloud".Soundcloud.Retrieved5 April2016.
  11. ^Kozzin, Allan (11 May 2009)."Composers and Performers, Together as Creators".The New York Times.Retrieved3 September2015.
  12. ^"Olga Bell: Origin/Outcome".Walker Art Centre.2014.Retrieved27 August2015.
  13. ^Brown, Helen (23 April 2014)."Olga Bell, Krai, Review: 'Fresh and Challenging'".The Telegraph.Retrieved27 August2015.
  14. ^"Nothankyou - Soundcloud".Soundcloud.Retrieved5 April2016.
  15. ^McGovern, Kyle (19 September 2013)."Dirty Projectors' Olga Bell Plays Dress-Up in Nothankyou's 'Oyster' Video".SPIN.Retrieved3 September2015.
  16. ^Wood, Makael (25 July 2012)."Dirty Projector Swings to a Different Spirit in New Album".Los Angeles Times.Retrieved27 August2015.
  17. ^"Son Lux 2015 tour dates".Facebook.Retrieved5 April2016.
  18. ^ab"Tempo".Bandcamp.Retrieved5 April2016.
  19. ^Wignall, James (12 August 2015)."Olga Bell: Goalie".Nowness.Retrieved27 August2015.
  20. ^"Olga Bell - Incitation (Lyric Video)".YouTube.15 September 2015.Retrieved16 July2016.
  21. ^Cook-Wilson, Winston (19 October 2015)."Olga Bell: Incitation EP Album Review".Pitchfork.Retrieved16 July2016.
  22. ^Sherburne, Philip (17 March 2016)."Olga Bell: Randomness".Pitchfork.Retrieved16 July2016.
  23. ^Williams, Hannah (14 June 2016)."Review: Olga Bell".The Quietus.Retrieved16 July2016.
  24. ^"Olga Bell 2016 tour dates".Facebook.Retrieved16 July2016.
  25. ^"Olga Bell 2016 tour dates".Facebook.Retrieved16 July2016.
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