Amber Arcades announces album

Amber Arcades, the moniker of Dutch musician Annelotte de Graaf, is to release her debut album, ‘Fading Lines’, on 3rd June 2016 via Heavenly. Today she shares the video for the album’s lead single ‘Right Now’ (impacting on 18th March 2016). The video was filmed by Jeroen van der Poel & Anna de Rijk, who said the following:

‘When we first got to listen to Amber Arcades’ ‘Right Now’ we instantly got the emerging feeling of a dream state; a surrealistic feeling which lacks any straightforward narrative. The cool thing about working with children at this young age (5 and 7) is that they will sabotage any trial to a narrative approach. Their fantasy and energy was a perfect match with our feelings towards the track’.

Watch the ‘Right Now’ video HERE.

Recorded at Strange Weather Studio in New York with producer Ben Greenberg (The Men, Beach Fossils, Destruction Unit), ‘Fading Lines’ was inspired by time, continuity, coincidence and magic. Other inspirations include early-morning jetlag (‘Turning Light’ – listen HERE) and an artist’s plans for a utopian city (‘Constant’s Dream’). Although that sounds pretty dreamy (and these songs do have wonderful ethereal qualities), De Graaf’s dreams are not the whimsical kind. De Graaf’s dreams have led to her working as a legal aide on UN war crime tribunals (she currently works in human rights law with people leaving Syria), to inviting strangers to share her Utrecht squat (which led to a friendship and later to her signing to Heavenly), and to spending her life savings on a flight to New York because that’s where she wanted to record her first album.

After researching producers and deciding to work with Greenberg (‘the odd one out as he’d produced all this hardcore punk shit’), Annelotte was joined by Shane Butler and Keven Lareau of Quilt on guitar and bass, Jackson Pollis of Real Estate on drums, plus Meg Duffy on slide guitar on the eerie, clip-clopping ‘Apophenia’. They listened to “a lot of Suicide, Broadcast, Stereolab, Yo La Tengo, The Gun Club...” and worked on the songs that Annelotte had written at home in Utrecht. “In New York everything came together beautifully - the whole team, the producer and the band. It was a magical time - writing an album had been an abstract thing in my mind and recording it in New York had been a wild, surreal plan. It never really occurred to me that it would happen until I sat on the plane. I had this money in my savings account and I thought, I’m going to make an album.”

Right from woozy, soaring opener ‘Come With Me’, this album invites endless interpretations – or simply emotional and physical reactions of joy, loss, acceptance and “the billions of different views there are to this life and whatever we’re doing here”. The result is a dazzling debut, full of swirling, steely songs, from an exceptional new talent.

Amber Arcades is currently on tour in the UK as main support to labelmates Palehound, and will be playing The Shacklewell Arms in London tonight, 3rd March. Annelotte and her band will be performing at a Heavenly night at The Moth Club on March 12th and will return to the UK next month to play three shows as special guests to Nada Surf, including at The Electric Ballroom in London on 11th April. A headline album release show has been announced for June 7th at The Lexington. The band will also appear at this year’s The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, Green Man and End Of The Road. Full live dates are as follows:

• Thu 03-Mar-16 United Kingdom London The Shacklewell Arms (sup. Palehound)
• Fri 04-Mar-16 Belgium – [PIAS] Nites (w/ FEWS MONEY ) @ Beursschouwburg, Brussel
• Sun 06-Mar-16 United Kingdom Leeds Headrow House (sup. Palehound)
• Mon 07-Mar-16 United Kingdom Brighton Sticky Mike's Frog Bar (sup. Palehound)
• Fri 11-Mar-16 Netherlands Amsterdam Paradiso - London Calling
• Sat 12-Mar-16 United Kingdom London Moth Club (sup. Gwenno)
• Wed 30-Mar-16 Belgium Brussels Cafe Bonnefooi
• Sat 09-Apr-16 United Kingdom Manchester Gorilla (sup. Nada Surf)
• Sun 10-Apr-16 United Kingdom Glasgow King Tuts Wah Wah Hut (sup. Nada Surf)
• Mon 11-Apr-16 United Kingdom London Electric Ballroom (sup. Nada Surf)
• Sat 16-Apr-16 Netherlands Utrecht Tivoli De Helling - Record Store Day Afterparty
• Thu 19-May-16 United Kingdom Brighton Latest Music Bar - The Great Escape
• Thu 02-Jun-16 Netherlands Utrecht Ekko - Album Launch Party
• Sat 04-Jun-16 United Kingdom Tamworth-in-Arden Lunar Festival
• Tue 07-Jun-16 United Kingdom London The Lexington - Album Launch Party
• Wed 08-Jun-16 France Paris L'espace B
• Fri 10-Jun-16 Belgium Diksmuide 4ad
• Sat 11-Jun-16 Berlin, Auster-Club
• Fri 22-Jul-16 United Kingdom Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon Secret Garden Party
• Sat 23-Jul-16 United Kingdom Thirsk, North Yorkshire Deer Shed Festival
• Sun 21-Aug-16 United Kingdom Crickhowell, Powys Green Man Festival
• Sat 27-Aug-16 Netherlands Amsterdam Amsterdam Woods Festival
• Fri 02-Sep-16 United Kingdom Tollard Royal, Wiltshire End Of The Road Festival

‘Fading Lines’ will be released on CD (HVNLP126CD), LP (HVNLP126) and Digital (HVNLP126DIG). The album is available to pre-order now physically HERE and Digitally HERE with an instant grat of ‘Right Now’ and ‘Turning Light’. The tracklisting is as follows:

1. Come With Me
2. Constant’s Dream
3. Fading Lines
4. I Will Follow
5. Perpetuum Mobile
6. Right Now
7. Apophenia
8. This Time
9. Turning Light
10. White Fuzz