User:Sight&sound/sandbox

Kate Blossom is a singer-songwriter from Melbourne, Australia, currently living in London, U.K.

Kate Blossom grew up in the Blue Dandenongs, the hills on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia. She lived with her grandparents in the forest. Kate listened to her grandmother, a pianist, play her repertoire daily. Kate fell in love with music, and at the keys of that piano she soon began making up little melodies, stories, poems and tiny songs.

Kate went on to study at Pop and Jazz at Box Hill Institute (Diploma Music Performance) and Improvisation at the Victorian College of the Arts – Melbourne University (Bachelor Music Performance).

During these studies Kate began playing in bands using her fledgling collection of beloved vintage synthesizers, wind instruments and her voice. Around this time she started listening to great artists like Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, Cat Power and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. These artists inspired her to focus her musical output through lyrics and song writing.

On completion of her studies, Kate decided to move to Europe. Once settled in Berlin she listened to every concert she could. Her music, voice mixed with analogue synthesizers, fit in with the edgy electronic sounds coming out of the eastern Berlin clubs. The strong poetic song style that Kate loved as a singer-songwriter blossomed. She thrived on the fresh inspiration, and the new ideas she encountered, as she played little gigs. She wrote streams of songs and poems.

Kate then decided on another move and followed the sun to Spain. Here she started hearing a greater simplicity. Breaking away from the complexity of composition she had been trained to write, she embraced the idea of elemental purity. Influenced by the lyricism of the musical traditions around her, and in step with the idea of candour and nakedness in presenting a concise song, Kate´s style changed.

This was where the embryo of the idea of the hyper purity - the hyper reality, the hyper simplicity - was born. It bloomed and was subsequently the name of Kate Blossom´s debut EP, recorded in November 2011 at the El Tostadero Studios in Barcelona. Working closely with producer Marc Molas Carol, the 6 song EP, for release in 2012 on Daruma Records, is performed on the watery Roland EP-09 analogue keyboard and a Casio Casiotone MT-40 analogue synthesizer.

The EP-09 and MT-40´s unique inbuilt analogue sounds, arpeggiator and drum machine, their warmly unpredictable preset sounds and their funny nuances were perfect for the dreamy feeling Kate Blossom wanted to evoke and depict. Kate also wore some small finger and wrist bells as she played, adding extra unpredictable percussive elements to each song – and true to how she performs live.

Producer Marc Molas Carol noticed these bells and worked on specific microphone placement techniques. It was integral to the recordings that the tiny keyboard noises, the "hyper real", be captured and amplified. Sounds of the keys being struck and the ringing of the bells on her fingers as she played and sang needed special focus - it was part of the essence of the song.

Kate Blossom now lives in London. She performs live solo playing piano or the Roland EP-09, or with Kate Blossom Band - Matt and Jason on acoustic electric guitars, Sebastian on bass and Dan on drums.