6.18.2009 Essex Chanel To Release Love is Proximity September 29th, 2009 on Sweet Goodness CHICAGO, Illinois - Chicago’s cross-genre musical project Essex Chanel is releasing it’s 8th (not counting The Album is Dead or the song-a-day January 2007 project) official studio album September 29th, 2009 on Sweet Goodness, a hot new indie label based in Chicago. Entitled Love is Proximity, the project took over 2 years to complete and consists of 42 love songs. The best tracks, selected by band leader Travis Lee Wiggins himself (10 total) are being released as a traditional album called Love is Proximity. The remaining 32 songs will be released as Love is Proximity Sessions Disks 1, 2, & 3 with two months in between each release. With Love is Proximity, Wiggins wanted to make a completely accessible mainstream album. Since mainstream music is dominated by love songs (for the simple reason that most of us experience love in some way or another), he decided to take all the love songs he had completed that hadn’t been recorded and start Love is Proximity. Begun in December of 2006, Travis worked on the album in any spare moment he had around his other bands and projects (The Summer Salts, Fetla, Dolphins Swimming, and even some other Essex Chanel albums such as Dancing at Weddings). The guiding principle used was that “Love is Proximity could be played in a Starbuck’s and sold at the front counter,” said Wiggins. While most Essex Chanel albums are written & recorded solely by Travis Lee Wiggins, Love is Proximity uses a multitude of Chicago musicians (9 to be exact) playing a very wide array of instruments to give this album’s songs a very dense and unique texture. Here, Wiggins becomes at times an arranger, mixer, and composer—going beyond simply writing and performing—working with other musicians to create melodies for Essex Chanel songs. Wiggins continues on Love is Proximity to do the mixing, producing, and mastering from his Beware of Dog Studios as on other Essex Chanel albums, and the recordings have an attention to detail that makes this album sparkle. Some tracks, such as “Skinny Dippin’” are packed so full of instrumentation that the song becomes an elaborate texture of swimming instruments, while still maintaining the separation where a listener can hear each instrument selectively. Other songs are simplified, not wasting a note, and straight to the heart, such as “Already in Heaven.” On most of Love is Proximity Wiggins’s vocals are bare and sitting on top of the mix, without added harmonies or overdubs or reverb, like Wiggins is sitting in your living room singing you a song. Lots of multimedia items have been created for Love is Proximity. A website at www.loveisproximity.com is dedicated towards the project and is where you can find lots of goodies. There is a free song book with all the songs’ lyrics with chords, videos of Wiggins showing you how to play Love is Proximity songs, free songs (such as the first single ‘Skinny Dippin’) from the album and sessions, you can listen to the complete album as a stream, videos of live performances of the songs, alternative versions and mixes, complete liner notes, stories of songs, and much more. Advance downloads of the album are available through most popular downloading sites. Essex Chanel will be playing shows and touring in the summer and fall of 2009 to support the release of Love is Proximity. Check out Essex Chanel at a town near you. Official Website: www.loveisproximity.com, www.essexchanel.com, www.sweetgoodnessmusic.com Genre – pop, indie, folk, love, rock, singer/songwriter Schedule of Releases: Press Contact: |