Saeta

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"...The soundtrack for star-crossed lovers everywhere, it's music that makes heartache and sorrow almost pleasurable. " Venus Magazine
"...their style is part orchestrated beauty, part pop- and rock-based music. It may sound odd on the surface, but it creates a startlingly brilliant sound, beautiful and moving yet upbeat and instantly appealing." Delusions of Adequacy
"...Saeta delves into the quieter sides of angst and emotion with simple acoustic guitar, piano, and cello arrangements that prove once and for all that less can absolutely be more." Performer Mag
"...Subtle production might not leap out at you when you hear Albini's name but Saeta's release is all about subtlety and frail beauty with its gentle cello, sparse acoustic guitar, strong piano, and voice of Matt Menovcik." Left Off the Dial
"...I had to let the fourth Saeta album grow on me; once it started, it took hold, like ivy. ...With the stunningly somber Matt Menovcik and upbeat Lesli Wood trading leads, Saeta has a pleasing low-high, sour-sweet, depression-optimism vocal style." Tom Scanlon, The Seattle Times
"... has crafted a unique, due to Menovcik's seedy growls and Smolenski's withering strings, sound landing somewhere in between Low and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, contorting enough sneering attitude to keep punks happy while still fully capable of lulling to sleep the craftiest of post-rockers." Christopher J. Ewing The Badger Herald
"...it's not music for snuggling with your honey on the couch, but for staring into space late in the night after that final phone call." Michael Toland, highbias.com
"...There's a unique dynamic between the two vocalists that can't be found anywhere else, and the piano-cello instrumentations are simple yet breathtakingly effective." punkinternational.com
"...Seata quell the passionate fire burning inside all of our souls with their quiet lush orchestrations not meant to be heard low on the volume dial. Smother.net
"...put on the new LP and you'll swear you can see your own breath. The perceptible chill arises from the austerity of the cello, piano, and guitar arrangements, and the emotional nature of Matt Menovcik's lyrics. " SEAN NELSON The Stranger, Seattle
"Two-and-a-half minutes go by on the first track before Matt's voice rises from a slowly freezing water. Another forty-five seconds pass and Lesli Wood's voice rings in like a shot of morphine to remind him of the light one last time before he goes under. Then we lose him, and the wintry musical landscape returns." Samantha Barrow - Copper Press
"Saeta demonstrate the rare ability to be both poets who express their authentic self and master the tools of their trade... in a way almost unheard of in the artistic wasteland of American music." - Message From the Homeland
_______ BIO ________
After years of playing music together in Detroit, Matt Menovcik (vocals, guitar) and Lesli Wood (piano, vocals) moved to Seattle and founded Saeta in 1998. The next year Bob Smolenski (cello) joined the band and Saeta began playing live performances in Seattle opening for bands such as Low, Mark Kozelek, Damien Jurado, Hem, DeVotchKa, Rasputina, The Church, Film School, Hypatia Lake, Tarantula A.D., Pete Krebs
Saeta has recently completed recording their latest full length album, Else Another Light Might Go Out, produced by Kramer in New York City. The album will be released in Europe on Ghost Records , 2008.
In 2004 Saeta completed their fourth CD, We Are Waiting All for Hope. Recorded and mixed by Steve Albini at his Chicago studio, Electrical Audio . The full length CD was released July, 6 2004 in the U.S.A. Distributed by NAIL. In Europe the record is being released and distributed by Ghost Records .
Saeta's previous albums, Resign to Ideal, released on Fish the Cat Records in May 2002, was recorded and produced by Kramer in New York City.
In July 2000, the band recorded its second CD, Structure in the Void. Saeta's sound caught the attention of Shimmy-Disc honcho and recording artist Kramer , who mixed and mastered the CD. This album was released on Recurving Recordings. After this album Saeta was featured in The Seattle Times in a profile of the city's best up-and-coming bands.
Saeta released its first full-length CD, entitled Burn, mixed by spacerockers Windy and Carl , July 1999.
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