James Angell  an American pianist, singer, songwriter, and producer -- whose music once heard is not easily forgotten.  

His whimsical Pacific Northwest roots flow through his original piano-driven music, with a fresh voice filled with the penultimate desire for soulful clarity.  He is a consummate wordsmith and musician summoning and summiting through his first hand experiences as the compelling  intricacies of his work reveal themselves. He takes his audiences along for the ride -- on a modern day psychedelic trip to such distant places travelled within his life, within his mind and music.  Drawn inward and beyond, entangled within the depth of his musicianship and vast artistry of charted music landscapes,  he haunts us all with his longing for an unknown future. Such ultimate concerns in his music regard dream states, the ice man, a meteor heading for Earth, and music to redeem us all from such aftermaths through the James Angell "escape hatch" into the next progression plodding formulaically, maniacally,  or tangentially.  He calls out a future that soon enough will catch-up to his fold in space and time. And there at the end of the musical piece, he favors his music and works to resolve into redemption.  Knowing this, his music reveals that James Angell is not holding anything back from us, and listeners are compelled to never forget him, or his future.

As a solo artist, he can easily walk into a room, sit down at the piano and immediately captivate within a moment of his first song. His stage presence coupled with his strong vocality and musical talent inevitably leave the audience moved with such solid and creative dynamics of his work.  His lyrics are painstaking etched into the symbolic and ultimate questions about being and non-being, space and time, meaning and redemption.  These are the words of truths, delusions, and illusions he conveys within each unique song, and such music is a transference and inculcation of his soulful dimensions invading all of music history's strata and form.  His original growing catalog of music is hiding such complexity in the simplicity of plain sight. It is rather easy to admire his creativity, his wielding of musical will in the dimensions of his music, his mastery of the piano, his skybridge of synthesizers hovering over the abyss, his lyrical approachability, and his transcendent redemptive inclusion for the future that awaits his arrival. 

 

James is legendary for his early work in Portland, Oregon with Neros Rome in the 1990’s.  They garnered unprecedented attention from CBS, Sony, Island Records before eventually signing with Mercury Records.

 

In 2002 further attention was garnered by the likes of David Bowie and Paul McCartney for his first solo album “Private Player” which was touted as an uncompromising work of art. In 2003 after being moved by his solo piano performances in New York City, the legendary bassist John Taylor of Duran Duran asked to join him to play his music as a backing band member which later evolved into the Private Players band.  The all-star Private Players included drummer/producer/engineer Tony Lash (Neros Rome, Heatmiser & Elliot Smith), guitarist Daniel Riddle (King Black Acid), Bassist John Taylor (Duran Duran), rhythm guitarist Sean Technor (King Black Acid) and Kevin Cozad (Neros Rome, Obscured By Clouds). This later became a concert film “Private Player James Angell Live In Concert” which was released on DVD.

In 2010 with his latest stellar effort, “The Pandemic Symphony” album, James Angell explores the musical inner-workings of his musical mind and has thereby downloaded this sound and vision to media to share with all the world.

 

THE JAMES ANGELL BIOGRAPHY:

James Angell is a native of Portland, Oregon where he continues to live and work. A fixture during the frenzy of the early 90's northwest music explosion, he has performed, written and recorded with such P-town notables as Courtney Taylor-Taylor (The Dandy Warhols), Tony Lash (Heatmiser, Elliot Smith), Eric Matthews, Daniel Riddle (King Black Acid) and Thee Slayer Hippy, producer and drummer of the notorious heavyweight punks, (Poison Idea). After years of group efforts he finally embarked on something so many others had been asking for, a solo album. He dropped out of the scene, had a daughter, designed and built a house in the woods and purchased enough recording gear to make this record. He sat in his kitchen with a piano, a synth, a mic and finished in the fall of 2001 with "Private Player". Beneath these arrangements lies a gritty soul, a sound track for the subconscious giving everyday events a cinematic gravity.

Private Player, the remarkable new album by James Angell, is a pop resurrection. Angell was there when interest in music from the Pacific Northwest exploded in the early Nineties, and as singer and songwriter for the seminal Portland band Nero's Rome, he was part of the exciting pop scene. He felt the high of being signed to a major label deal not once but twice, but the pain of having both deals fall through when the labels reorganized internally broke his heart. "I took four years off after that," Angell remembers, during which time he moved to the woods outside Portland. Only recently, he ended his self-imposed exile and recorded Private Player on Psycheclectic Records, a recording

Matthew Greenwald of AllMusicGuide.com declared, "The underground classic of 2002." Classics are not made over night though. Just a little over two years ago Angell began writing again when, like Henry D. Thoreau, he found his muse in his isolation. This time, the music came not from listening to popular music - "I have a piss poor record collection," he confesses - but from remembering old church hymns. "My father was a Baptist minister," Angell explains, "and I grew up in an old-fashioned Baptist church. We could only listen to classical music or hymns, the old hymns." On Private Player, you can hear that influence in the beautiful open chords and the melancholy seriousness of the songs. "The music that affects me has a sadness about it," he says.

The aching, dreamy pop of Private Player was written in a vacuum with no end result in mind. The ancient upright piano, the synth he got for his birthday, microphone, recording gear, these are the tools that made this miracle happen. With a keen sense of texture and melodic subtleties, he "tweaked tracks until the wee hours," he says, and the result of that attention is particularly evident on the atmospheric "Call Off the War" - which recalls Julian Cope and The Teardrop Explodes - and "Ed Blue Bottle," where Tom Waits meets Brian Eno meets David Lynch.

With a poet's grace and insight, Angell examines the emotional turbulence of domestic life on Private Player, and he does so in lovely musical settings that are never as spare as they initially seem. At first listen, Angell's hushed tenor and piano define the songs, but "there's a lot of music going on there," he explains. The simplest melodies develop jazzy or psychedelic dimensions - sometimes both - so the songs gain depth and resonance with each listen. While much of the musical coloring is subtle, his 3 1/2 year-old daughter Astrid's "reading" of a passage from a book on physics in the beginning of "Sweet Bell" is startling. "I read it to her three or four words at a time and had her repeat them after me," he explains. "Then we took the tape to a studio and cut out my prompting to edit it into seamless speech." The results are not quite seamless though, leaving a voice as unsettling as that of the dwarf in Twin Peaks, and one that suits the distant, drifting feel of the song.

Recording in the privacy of his cottage in the woods gave Angell the license to craft music that is deeply felt and highly personal. Separated from the peer pressures that accompany recording in studios, he trusted his musical intuition and made daring decisions, and many tracks "are based on accidents." Often he used first and second takes of tracks, stopping musicians before they fully developed their parts, and he applied the same aesthetic to his vocals. "There's a fair amount of loose stuff on the vocals," but that "loose stuff" adds a distinctive personality to the album. Making unconventional decisions might seem wrong, but his courageous approach became part of his recording philosophy; "there must always be something that's not quite right. There's got to be something kinky going on."

With the wealth of musical talent available in Angell's circle, one of Angell's bolder decisions on Private Player was to have his brother Theo and his sister Christina sing backing vocals on the recording. The decision was partially based on talent - "Our family's very musical," he explains - but it was also because "the rule of thumb on this record was 'Use what's at hand.'" Still, he knew better than to take that homemade ideal too far. For other parts, he turned to his friends in Portland's stellar musical community. "I always need an excellent drummer," Angell says, so he turned to Tony Lash of Heatmiser. He also turned to Daniel Riddle of King Black Acid for guitar, and he reunited with former bandmate Tod Morrisey, who contributes additional vocals. On the wistful "Treat Song," Angell enlisted the services of Eric Matthews to add his haunting trumpet.

Private Player, as the name implies, truly is a more personal record, but as John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, Big Star's Sister Lovers and Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs have shown, the personal albums are often the most resonant.

Classics are not made over night though. Just a little over two years ago Angell began writing again when, like Henry D. Thoreau, he found his muse in his isolation. This time, the music came not from listening to popular music – “I have a piss poor record collection,” he confesses – but from remembering old church hymns. “My father was a Baptist minister,” Angell explains, “and I grew up in an old-fashioned Baptist church. We could only 
listen to classical music or hymns, the old hymns.” On Private Player, you can hear that influence in the 
beautiful open chords and the melancholy seriousness of the songs. “The music that affects me has a sadness about it,” he says. 

The aching, dreamy pop of Private Player was written in a vacuum with no end result in mind. The ancient upright piano, the synth he got for his birthday, microphone, recording gear, these are the tools that made this miracle happen. With a keen sense of texture and melodic subtleties, he “tweaked tracks until the wee hours,” he says, and the result of that attention is particularly evident on the atmospheric “Call Off the War” – which recalls Julian Cope and The Teardrop Explodes – and “Ed Blue Bottle,” where Tom Waits meets Brian Eno meets David Lynch. 

With a poet’s grace and insight, Angell examines the emotional turbulence of domestic life on Private Player, and he does so in lovely musical settings that are never as spare as they initially seem. At first listen, Angell’s hushed tenor and piano define the songs, but “there’s a lot of music going on there,” he explains. The simplest melodies develop jazzy or psychedelic dimensions – sometimes both – so the songs gain depth and resonance with each listen. While much of the musical coloring is subtle, his 3 1/2 year-old daughter Astrid’s “reading” of a passage from a book on physics in the beginning of “Sweet Bell” is startling. “I read it to her three or four words at a time and had her repeat them after me,” he explains. “Then we took the tape to a studio and cut out my prompting to edit it into seamless speech.” The results are not quite seamless though, leaving a voice as unsettling as that of the dwarf in Twin Peaks, and one that suits the distant, drifting feel of the song. 

Recording in the privacy of his cottage in the woods gave Angell the license to craft music that is deeply felt and highly personal. Separated from the peer pressures that accompany recording in studios, he trusted his musical intuition and made daring decisions, and many tracks “are based on accidents.” Often he used first and second takes of tracks, stopping musicians before they fully developed their parts, and he applied the same aesthetic to his vocals. “There’s a fair amount of loose stuff on the vocals,” but that “loose stuff” adds a distinctive personality to the album. Making unconventional decisions might seem wrong, but his courageous approach became part of his recording philosophy; “there must always be something that’s not quite right. There’s got to be something kinky going on.” 

With the wealth of musical talent available in Angell’s circle, one of Angell’s bolder decisions on Private Player was to have his brother Theo and his sister Christina sing backing vocals on the recording. The decision was partially based on talent – “Our family’s very musical,” he explains – but it was also because “the rule of thumb on this record was ‘Use what’s at hand.’” Still, he knew better than to take that homemade ideal too far. For other parts, he turned to his friends in Portland’s stellar musical community. “I always need an excellent drummer,” Angell says, so he turned to Tony Lash of Heatmiser. He also turned to Daniel Riddle of King Black Acid for guitar, and he reunited with former bandmate Tad Morrisey, who contributes additional vocals. On the wistful "Treat Song," Angell enlisted the services of Eric Matthews to add his haunting trumpet. 

Private Player, as the name implies, truly is a more personal record, but as John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band, 
Big Star’s Sister Lovers and Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs have shown, the personal albums are often the most resonant. 

 

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REVIEWS FOR STUDIO ALBUM

"The Pandemic Symphony"

 

“Over the last decade, Portland, Oregon, has become a hotbed for contemporary music—you’ve no doubt heard of the Decemberists, Pink Martini, Dead Moon, the Shins, Sleater-Kinney, and Stephen Malkmus. As the most imaginative and compelling of the Portland artists, James Angell has been flying mysteriously under the radar for the last decade. His resonant voice and colorfully orchestrated music have allowed him to carve out his own niche in the Pacific Northwest, but he has remained a well-kept secret elsewhere. Hard at work on his second solo album, with his third one already written in his head, record deal in hand at long last, this should be changing like a door kicked open.”Todd Simmons  – The Brooklyn Rail, New York

I find this one the most haunting albums and definitely a story. I love the Pandemic Symphony it is pure poetry. I really love this new album. 
Inessa Anderson – KINK FM 101.9  Portland, OR

 

KINK FM plays "Iceman"

from "The  Pandemic Symphony"

      TO LISTEN CLICK HERE

 

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OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE....

VOCALIST, PIANIST AND NATIVE PORTLANDIAN, JAMES ANGELL RELEASES THE EPIC FOLLOW-UP TO 2003'S "PRIVATE PLAYER" WITH HIS NEW ALBUM "THE PANDEMIC SYMPHONY".

James Angell brings in 2011 with his monumental undertaking the album "The Pandemic Symphony". Angell's latest vision was a nearly 6-year crusade, bringing a world-class production to the ears of his Portland, Oregon audience and beyond. Angell is no stranger to the Portland music scene playing and touring both locally and nationally for 25 years, carrying with him some of the most original heartfelt lyrics and soul-stirring music to be heard. During his time fronting Portland legends Neros Rome the band was courted by major labels such as Island, MCA, Capital and Mercury the last two offering a coveted five-album deal. Thanks to label takeovers all the offers ended up DOA. 

Motivated by frustration he retreated to his cabin in the woods and soon emerged with an album, a diary of fatherhood and marriage titled “Private Player”. The New York Times gushed "...Angell returns with an album of ambitious orchestral psychedelia. Private Player, that's earned justifiable comparisons to the hallmark of the genre, Love's "Forever Changes." The album also garnered rave reviews from the likes of David Bowie, Paul McCartney and bassist John Taylor of Duran Duran who was to later join his band. “This is the most honest music I have ever heard” mused Mr. Taylor. He went on, performing with Angell’s all-star lineup two sold-out shows in Portland. One at The Crystal Ballroom the other at the at the Alladin Theater. Bowie even went so far as offering to personally sign him to his label ISO over over a phone call to Angell's residence. The conversation ended with "We will pick this up in two weeks where we have left off, when I'm back from tour".

 

Angell counted the seconds, minutes, days and finally weeks. Silence. Undeterred by the phone call that was to never come, Angell once again took matters into his own hands. Between day jobs and tribulations he created an album of ear-candy with baroque depth, a stellar recording that could still be brought into the live forum of the stage. “The Pandemic Symphony” was tracked everywhere from the family kitchen to the woods of upstate New York where it was to be finally mixed. 

It all begins with the trenchant-juggernaut "I Followed Myself To NYC", a frenzied search for lost loved ones. Hot on its heels is the range-pounding rhythm of saloon house rouser "The Horse No One Can Ride" in which you can practically smell the horse shit, cheap perfume, then finally falling head-first into the whiskey-soaked skid marks on the barroom floor.  Surging forward the album continues with "James of the Trees". One listens as the lush rainforest turns to scorched Earth. Ratcheting down into one of Angell's specialties, the delivery of sad yet strangely uplifting melodies, he recalls for you first hand the experience of musician as world-weary traveler in “The Cost Of Art”. “The Ballad of Liz and Richard” tells a story of love and war fought while swimming against the undertow of booze-fueled romance.  Angell soon brings the chemistry to a sexual boil with the slinky funk of "Good Girl" and "Margot Please". Curveballs are soon thrown with the suspension of time frozen in the epic "Iceman". One ascends to the spirit plane accompanied by Tibetan-like chants and rave up Motown vocals. The album concludes with a sea-shanty "Mansion Of Happiness". It speaks of the patience required in pursuing a no-compromise artistic vision, yet eventually winning the golden ticket, both metaphorically and literally. James is not alone in this victory, the audience also gets to cash in, sharing with him the prize.

 

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The Oregonian - Arts & Entertainment 

"Coming out of the woods" - Scott D. Lewis 

"About 21/2 years ago I thought, 'How did this happen? I'm living next to my parents . . . What am I going to do?' " James Angell says, remembering the epiphany that brought him back to making music.  "I knew I had to start doing music again. I thought, 'I do not want to be in a band, I am not doing that again.' " 

Angell learned about the realities of band life with Nero's Rome. In the mid-1990s, Nero's Rome was one of Portland's most promising bands, with Angell handling piano duties and sharing vocals with Tod Morrisey. The group's stirring mixture of epic rock and new wave flair inspired Capitol Records to offer a deal. 

"It was heartbreaking," recalls Angell, "going back and forth, getting a deal, A&R guys getting fired, new president firing everybody and deals going out the window. It was pretty harsh." After Nero's Rome made a second album, a development deal was cut with Mercury Records but, Angell says, the money was mismanaged. With the well dry and his wife pregnant, Angell retreated to his parent's property in the woods south of Portland. 

There, he designed and built his house and also worked as a carpenter (he's now building Super Digital's new facilities). 

But, as might be said, you can take the musician out of the music but you can't take the music out of the musician. Angell began feeling the need to create again. 

"I've got a big upright piano out here," says Angell, "and I just started writing tunes. I got some recording gear and started tracking. Once I got the songs down with some vocals so I could get an idea of what I wanted to do, I started calling in various players to do this and that." 

That list includes such local luminaries as Tony Lash, Eric Matthews, Daniel Riddle, Phil Baker, Steve Hanford (Thee Slayer Hippy) and even former band mate Morrisey. Angell also asked for contributions from his brother and sister and young daughter, Astrid. 

The resulting CD, "Private Player," is a lovely listen, though at times a bit unsettling, combining influences as diverse as Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Tim Buckley. Angell's compositions are sweeping, unhurried and embellished enough to keep the surprises coming without becoming cluttered. Angell's understated, breathy voice is the ideal complement, and, overall, this is music that comes from an artistic rather than commercial drive. 

Which is not to say that "Private Player" doesn't have "legs." Influential Southern California radio station KCRW made it one of its picks and has invited Angell to perform on the air in April. All Music Guide has just given the album a fawning four-and-a-half-star review for its 2002 publication; and Magnet magazine is slated to do a story on Angell's music." 
 

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JamesAngell.com

JamesAngell.net

myspace.com/jamesangell

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