Melody Klyman
Hailed by key taste-makers and national press alike, Melody Klyman’s debut album, ‘Sovereign’ brought her early acclaim from The Guardian, Clash, Time Out, and beyond.
Melody is now back with her sophomore album entitled ‘Bending The Knotted Oak’ likely due for official release in late 2009. The new album is more live, more organic and more representative of the myriad of influences Melody experienced growing up from Kate Bush, This Mortal Coil and the Cocteau Twins to Killing Joke, Nina Hagen and Siouxsie & The Banshees. She does however cite her true influences for the new album as Edward Gorey, Lewis Carroll and Dr. Seuss.
Canadian born UK based Klyman trained as a classical pianist from the age of 6, and wrote her first songs while at school. At 18 she formed an indie band in her native Canada and played the club circuit. After being wooed as a solo artist by a major label at the age of 20 she quickly tired of being treated “like a product”, still looking for a more suitable direction she declined and began to set her sights on the UK.
After a move to the UK she fell in love with rave and club culture and in the intervening years moved between both countries. She performed with dance artists in Canada and has sung and written for a number of dance producers around the globe using an alias picking up a gold disc and numerous plaudits along the way.
While Melody’s writing exploits in the dance arena were successful, her true musical inspiration is reflected in her diverse love of artists from the more alternative and song-based genres. Wanting to make music that bore all of her influences she made a home in the UK in 2005, reinvented herself for a 21st century audience and stamped it with her own personality and her highly distinctive voice.
You can also hear Melody’s vocals on producer Soil In The Synth’s debut EP singing a cover of Ultravox’s ‘Dancing With Tears in My Eyes’ channeling Midge Ure and in a collaboration with Future Funk Squad and The Crystal Method on the tune ‘Isolate’ featured on the latest Future Funk Squad album ‘Disorders of Skill’. An original version of this song entitled ‘I Isolate ‘is also found on her new album.
“A bold, brash and other worldly mix of soul, world influences and pop – makes writers go all jittery and they prematurely shout out influences like Kate Bush, Bat For Lashes, Unkle etc. but this is a true, …strikingly individual sounding new artist, invest some time in her music, you wont be disappointed!”- Jeremy Chick (SUBBA-CULTCHA)
“This is an intelligent and striking record which does more than enough to deserve a wide audience. 8/10″- Eddie Thomas (SUBBA-CULTCHA)
“Melody is my kind of artist. A complex, three dimensional person who really defies labelling. Yes, she has a beautiful, ‘pure as snow’ voice, but get past it. See her for her mystery, intelligence and down-to-earth fun. And while the album is certainly a near-flawless showpiece for an emerging talent, I will always see it more as a document to a very important time in an artist’s life – a moment of bravery, new beginnings and liberation.” 8.5/10- Brett Spaceman-[SIC] Magazine
“Kate Bush takes over songwriting and vocal duties for Bat For Lashes.Bush For Lashes. This didn’t happen, but Melody Klyman can more than satisfy those who wish it would.Not many debut albums can boast the amount of experience Melody Klyman offers on her new record ‘Sovereign’.It is very personal and really symbolises an artist who has broken free from the chains.” (CLASH MAGAZINE)
“She baulks at the term “gothic”, but at its best her music is like Siouxsie Sioux in a tussle with UNKLE - it’s symphonic, strident yet somehow soulful”-
Paul Lester (THE GUARDIAN)
“Sinewy electronic grooves, melodic surefootedness and an existential gloom make Melody Klyman the Cocteau Twins for the i-generation.” -
Andy Pemberton
(New York Times, Esquire, Blender, Spin, GQ, The Observer, Q, Mojo)
“but for me this is Annie Lennox’ younger sister, dressed in black and striking a pose not dissimilar to that of Shakespeare’s Sister, Siobhan Fahey. This album is like seeing the sunrise at dawn, the cold earth having produced a low mist over the landscape. And as the phoenix that is this album rises from the ashen coals, the feeling that Ms. Klyman may be starting on a spectacular journey is the electricity tingling in your fingertips. 9/10 (ATOMICDUSTER)
“Sullen, gloomy and atmospheric, Melody Klyman’s debut burns bright, like a dark star. Forceful drums and electronic beats provide the pulse and Klyman’s voice, the hooks, for this collection of densely produced, shadow pop symphonies.A record custom built for long winter evenings and clubs with a dress policy that errs towards black. Not for everyone, but what is?”-Rob F (LEICESTER BANGS)
“haunting pulse pop resembling Laurie Anderson fronting a re-imagined One Dove” -(TIME OUT London)
“Ethereal vox meets pulsating synths to create a memorable debut and one which puts her firmly on the map.”- Ian Todd (BAD ROBOT)
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