Eleanor Friedberger was the first artist to perform in our series. She recently took a hiatus from the Fiery Furnaces to strike out solo. Released via Merge Records, Friedberger's new album Last Summer exhibits a more straightforward production style compared to her work with her brother in the Fiery Furnaces; yet her storytelling abilities and unique avant-pop sensibilities both remain clearly intact.
After Mark Jumper and Max Newman of Chicago band Bob Dey's Tank Engine Man conducted an interview in the Epitonic office space, Eleanor took the saki stage. She played a laid-back yet engaging set to a thrilled audience. Fitting the intimate setting, Friedberger played mostly unaccompanied -- except on a few numbers, where Jumper picked up a tambourine and joined in. Most of her selections were from her new album, although she did play the Furnaces' song "Lost at Sea" and a great new unnamed song, too. We captured both the set and interview with a few video cameras and a multi-track audio set up, and after some diligent editing, created this video segment and collection of MP3s for download.
Many thanks to Eleanor Friedberger and Merge Records for helping us launch the Epitonic/saki Session series. We hope you will enjoy the video and MP3s -- look for many more sessions in the near future!
Credits:
Video Production -- Jason Zenz
Live Sound -- Adam Hirzel
Audio Recording and Mixing -- Justin Sinkovich
Mastering -- Hawon Jung
