Notes
Independent recording artist, October Project, known all over the world for it's breathtaking, transformative albums has released a beautiful collection of songs called COVERED: The songs of Emil Adler and Julie Flanders. Flanders & Adler are known for spiritually-themed, poetic music which has been described as 'passionate and ethereal' and perceived as being in the same genres as Enya, Sarah McLachlan (with whom the band toured in the mid-1990's) and Loreena McKennitt. COVERED features 16 independent artists doing unique 'covers' of Flanders & Adler's extraordinary and influential work, and represents not only a lovely tapestry of different individual aesthetics coming together, but also the coming-together of artists-helping-artists at a time when the music business is dramatically changing. 'The album really sparked to life from two sources. First, from fans who would let us know about wild cover versions they had heard of our songs,' says Flanders, who writes all the words to the songs. 'We would then try to go find those versions, and we came up with some pretty wonderful a cappella group recordings and some odd and wonderful recordings by other artists.' 'For example, we heard that a high school band had won a marching contest with a cover of one of our songs, called Be My Hero. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find that group. But we were able to locate several a cappella groups around the country who had done the most imaginative and extraordinary versions of songs we thought we knew - but could now hear in an entirely new way. Two of those songs are on the album' 'The other spark was our loft concert series,' says Flanders. 'We created this New York City based performance series to pay for our health insurance, and we wanted to help other artists in the process. So we started asking people to open for us so that we could introduce our fans to their music, to artists that we like. And everyone who would play The Loft Series would do an October Project cover song, which the audience seemed to really love!' October Project's current lead singer Marina Belica explains that California-based recording artist Julian Coryell really kicked off the Covered project when he recorded a version of 'Adam & Eve' from October Project's second album, Falling Farther In, which came out on Epic Records in 1995. 'Julian had performed at the Loft and then decided to record an album of covers by a range of wonderful artists, including Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and Led Zeppelin, among others. He is such a remarkable musician who played guitar for us on our second album tour and is an incredibly accomplished singer/songwriter. He totally shocked us by recording "Adam & Eve." It opens this album.' Coryell, who has been an integral part of Aimee Mann's band, is known in the music world both as prodigious jazz artist and a center stage rock artist, whose album 'Rock Star' won significant critical acclaim. 'Every version on the album is fascinating,' says Adler, October Project's composer and musical leader. 'Each artist brought their essence, their sound, through our material, and you can really hear that something musically fresh emerges.' October Project's current lead singer, Marina Belica agrees. 'It's amazing how the songs transform according to who's singing them,' she says. 'It's as if every recording artist has their own fingerprint, and the song changes in their hands.' Belica herself contributed a track to the CD, the song, 'Always a Place' which was written for her by Flanders & Adler to help raise money for children who suffered the consequences of the war in Kosovo. The Kosovo compilation was put together by Joy Askew, who is also featured on COVERED singing OP's 'If I Could. ' Askew, who has performed all over the world with such artists as Peter Gabriel, Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt, is an unparalleled vocalist, according to the OP members. 'When she sings, the hair goes up on your arms,' says Flanders. 'Joy is i