MYRA DAVIES - Cities & Girls

Canadian spoken word artist Myra Davies is back with her new album CITIES & GIRLS, a fresh collection of witty stories. As with their MIASMA trilogy, Davies’ stories have been set to music by Gudrun Gut, whose own solo album I Put A Records On came out last year, as well as Beate Bartel and the team of Danielle de Picciotto / Alexander Hacke - who provide the musical accompaniment on two tracks. Berlin Electronica is the warp in which Davies weaves reportage on global life in the early 21st century.
Cities and Girls are prevalent themes. "The city is our social heart and creative core" Davies says. That sounds odd coming from an artist who lives in The Rocky Mountains. "I see cities with fresh eyes," she says. "Look around. This is a great time for cities." And Girls? "I was a girl once myself. It's fun but not easy. Wherever I am, I tend to notice how girls are handling the challenge. My friend Sherry is a dead girl. She began haunting me in San Diego when I was first exposed to the new anti-abortion campaign." There are several dead people walking in this album. "It's good karma to give some air time to the past and gone."

The stories in the GIRLS & CITIES cd range widely in time and space. For the composers, the challenge was to find musical ideas that support specific story settings and also ground the track in the album as a whole.