Echo Bloom - Green (2018)

“I think it’s important to be ambitious,” asserts Echo Bloom frontman and founder Kyle Evans. “When I started this band, that was a challenge that I set for myself. I wanted to make something really beautiful, whether it’s folk music or rock music or something more experimental. The medium and the people I’ve worked with have changed, but I’ve always tried to hold on to that fundamental idea.”

Echo Bloom’s musical output has consistently lived up to Evans’ creative ideals. The band’s four albums, although recorded under wildly differing circumstances, share Evans’ distinctive melodic sensibility, his vivid, expressive lyrics and his lovingly crafted arrangements. Whether he’s performing alone or fronting an expanded band, Evans’ gently intoxicating songs stand in a class of their own.

Echo Bloom’s new album, Green, is perhaps Evans’ most accomplished effort yet, with such compelling new compositions as “Fire In You Eyes,” “The Duke,” “Comet” and “Love and Superglue” exemplifying his distinctively rootsy pop-folk songcraft, as well as his penchant for carefully textured arrangements that amplify the material’s musical and emotional depth. Recorded with renowned songwriter/guitarist Kevin Salem producing and Evans’ wildly talented band — including vocalist/keyboardist Aviva Jaye, bassist Alex Minier and drummer Cody Rahn — Green is something rare and special.

Green is the product of an extended creative journey that’s taken Evans around America, from his upbringing in the deep south through stints in Washington DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco to his current base of New York City, with an extended stint in Berlin in between. The irreplaceable combination of life experience and artistic experimentation is reflected in Evans’ singular creative vision, as well as his largely self-taught musicianship.

Although Evans grew up surrounded by all manner of conflicting musical influences in Pensacola, Florida, it wasn’t until college that he began playing guitar and writing his first songs. After finishing college, he moved to Washington, DC, where he began recording his original material. He produced and recorded everything in a home-built studio in the basement of the commune he lived in, and formed the Rosemont Family Reunion to perform his songs. The band toured around the East Coast, eventually evolving into Echo Bloom.

After recording the first Echo Bloom album Jamboree in a concentrated four-day session, Evans decided to leap into the artistic deep end by focusing on what he felt to be that album’s three most successful songs, writing an album of new songs around each. These became the lush, folk-flavored Blue, the more rock-oriented Red and the pop-rock/Americana-styled Green. Much of the material for Echo Bloom’s trilogy was written during Evans’ Berlin sojourn.

Evans returned to the States with the score for Blue, and after settling in New York City, assembled a six-piece band to record it. Blue won local renown and offers to tour in Europe and America. The current Echo Bloom lineup’s musical rapport has been honed through that extensive performing experience, including a grueling but enthusiastically received 60-date European tour.

With an impressive body of work already under their collective belt, and with a variety of fascinating projects in the works, Green points to a limitless creative future for Kyle Evans and Echo Bloom.

Track List:
01. Comet
02. The Duke
03. Grand Marquis
04. Cecil Demille
05. Song For Steven
06. Anthony
07. Fire
08. Love & Superglue
09. Mary
10. English Teacher
11. Swimmer
12. Unchanged

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