Nijole Sparkis profile picture

Nijole Sparkis

ART POP:
ARTFUL MUSIC FOR EVOLVING PEOPLE

About Me


"PARALLEL UNIVERSE" CD
{The "CD Sampler" in the music player above is FREE to use on your MySpace page or as you please! }
The "Parallel Universe" CD is available at CD Baby and Amazon, and individual songs can also be downloaded at iTunes and eMusic.

For a special treat, I have posted Emmy-nominated composer Jamie Dunlap's re-mix of my song "Parallel Universe" here for you to download for FREE! Simply right-click or Ctrl+click on the banner below and choose "Save link as" or "Download linked file". Enjoy, and let me know how you like it!
"I love creating music -- lush, melodic, exotic, passionate, deeply emotional. I believe Sound created the Universe, and that music can shift the vibration of the planet. It is my intention to see us shift to a higher plane of existence, so we create a Parallel Universe that is more to our liking -- a heartful place of global cooperation and respect for diversity, where everyone has all they need, where we discover a great new fuel/energy source, where there is no pollution of the air or water or food, where Global Warming is a distant memory, where everyone is inspired and spiritually nurtured, and where humanity can exist at its BEST. If you're willing, we can create it NOW."
NIJOLE'S OFFICIAL BIO:
Nijole creates her own blend of dreamy sensual world pop by combining the Lithuanian folk songs she grew up with in Chicago and her favorite influences from the psychedelic era. The result is a unique combination of world-flavored folk pop, featuring introspective, spiritual lyrics.Nijole's vocals are hypnotic and her songwriting solid, but what sets her atmospheric sound apart from the crowd is her choice of exotic instrumentation and alluring Lithuanian choral background vocals, with appeal for fans of everything from the lavish pop of Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel and Loreena McKennitt, to the harmony-laden Enya and the Eurocentric Dead Can Dance. Ethnic hand drums, flutes, sitar, Turkish saz and flamenco guitar, are combined with classical violin and cello, techno synths and electric guitar arranged by Fritz Heede -- composer of NBC's Emmy-winning "Mystery of the Sphinx" and the art-DVDs "Illuminated Manuscripts" and "Ritual Path".Nijole has sung the theme song for the DVD release of cult film "Timothy Leary's Dead". Her songs are featured regularly on legendary DJ Jim Ladd's Theatre of the Mind radio show "Headsets" on Los Angeles's No.1 Classic Rock station 95.5 KLOS-FM. Her music video "In My Dreams" (featuring her own photography from around the world) was aired on Harmony Channel for two months in 2006. She wrote and recorded vocals for John Banks' and Fritz Heede's "Ritual Path" DVD, released in January 2007, which also features vocals by Jon Anderson, lead singer of the 70's super-group "Yes". Nijole is currently recording lush choral harmony background vocals for Jon Anderson's upcoming Trance-scendent Dance album.
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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 11/11/2005
Band Website: nijolesparkis.com
Band Members: I am a solo artist, so I always welcome hearing from other world music instrumentalists to play with. My CD is produced by Fritz Heede, a composer (though I write my own music) who writes a blend of dramatic, progressive, world, jazz and rock influenced music. You can hear more of his work at fritzheede.com .
Influences: Milla Jovovich's "Divine Comedy" album, Kate Bush, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Enya, Joni Mitchell, Sinead O'Connor, Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir", psychedelic era Beatles, David Bowie's "Lodger" album, Natacha Atlas, Dead Can Dance, Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit", Loreena McKennitt, Amina, Bel Canto, Eddi Reader's "Mirmama" album, Najma, the Bulgarian Women's Choir
Sounds Like: Milla Jovovich, Kate Bush meets Enya, Peter Gabriel, Jane Siberry, Sting, Sarah Brightman, Sinead O'Connor, psychedelic era Beatles, David Bowie's "Lodger" album, Natacha Atlas, Dead Can Dance, Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit", Loreena McKennitt, Bel Canto, Eddi Reader

LATEST COLLABORATION:

I recently co-wrote and sang vocals for 3 tracks on Fritz Heede's electro-classical "Ritual Path" CD. It is the soundtrack to a gorgeous DVD by the same name, which features the organic animation of John S. Banks. Jon Anderson, lead singer of "Yes", also contributed a track to this project. Jon Anderson used the visuals from John Banks' and Fritz Heede's first DVD "Illuminated Manuscripts" on his recent solo world tour.
The visuals for this track, entitled "Enclosed in Rydal", were filmed at Rydal Mount near the home of William Wordsworth in England. Visual artist John Banks asked me to write the lyrics in J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish language to match Fritz Heede's Celtic instrumentation:

For this extremely serene track, entitled "Blue Island", I wrote a poem in Lithuanian to match the visuals and to complement the other-worldly tone set by Fritz Heede's music. The lyrics speak of how we can be so deeply moved by a place we visit, that the journey never ends because it stays with us always.: "Miglota kaip sapne, o ezere sukurys mus svaigina. Kalnuose saule leidzias -- tyku ir ramu. Zemeje nuostabu kai svinta! Sieloje giliai jaudina -- ah! Kaip praeina sviesa per greitai! Tuojaus tamsuma apims kalnus visus... Bet sirdy dar gyvens visi jausmai -- ai! tos vietoves. Baigias kelione, ne visai, ne visai..."

"PARALLEL UNIVERSE" CD
Here's my music video "In My Dreams", from my "Parallel Universe" CD, that was featured on Harmony Channel for 2 months in 2006. I created it in Flash using travel photos I took in 5 different countries and 6 different US states:


A short excerpt from my flamenco-based jam tune "Rise", also from my "Parallel Universe" CD, which features occipital vocal singing -- I created this Flash animation using my travel photography from around the world:

Record Label: Golden Goat Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

MUSIC RE-MIXERS WANTED!

I have just successfully placed one of my re-mixed songs ("Parallel Univers Re-Mix") with a big music library, and so I’m encouraged to have the rest of my songs re-mixed for placements, too. I...
Posted by Nijole Sparkis on Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:45:00 PST

Newspaper interview

Today a rather lengthy interview about me and my music came out in the Lithuanian language newspaper "Amerikos Lietuvis" which is published in Chicago. Thanks to my MySpace friend Vita Malinauskiene ...
Posted by Nijole Sparkis on Sun, 03 Feb 2008 01:01:00 PST

NEWS Blog

It's almost year-end (along with my birthday! -- Dec. 29) and I've finally gotten a chance to update the NEWS Blog on my website. Now you can see all I've been up to this year -- it's been a full, fu...
Posted by Nijole Sparkis on Mon, 24 Dec 2007 02:13:00 PST

Ectophiles Guide to Good Music

I am so stoked! I just received an email saying that I have been added to the Ectophiles Guide to Good Music. In case you are not familiar with all things "ecto", this is a guide that was started by...
Posted by Nijole Sparkis on Mon, 24 Dec 2007 02:05:00 PST

I met Alanis Morissette tonight!!

Who knew?! Fritz and I were on our weekly uneventful grocery shopping trip to our local health food store. We had run a lot of errands earlier today -- staying longer at this shop, making an extra u...
Posted by Nijole Sparkis on Thu, 20 Sep 2007 12:39:00 PST

Hear the Echoes (PBS) Radio interview about the making of "Ritual Path"

Click here to hear the full-length Echoes Radio interview about the making of "Ritual Path" with visual artist John Banks, composer Fritz Heede, singer Nijole Sparkis, and special guest star Jon Ander...
Posted by Nijole Sparkis on Mon, 28 May 2007 09:05:00 PST

Echoes Radio, Pandora.com, Meta-Creative Radio, Pilotcast, & Radio Sing-Sing

John Diliberto of Echoes Radio (offered thru the Public Broadcasting network) interviewed Fritz Heede, John Banks, and me about the making of the Ritual Path DVD and CD, which also features Jon Anders...
Posted by Nijole Sparkis on Tue, 01 May 2007 11:57:00 PST

Jon Anderson in New York!

Fritz Heede and I were very fortunate to be the guests of Jon Anderson at his exciting concert at Symphony Space in New York. The musicians were from Paul Green's School of Rock and they were AMAZING...
Posted by Nijole Sparkis on Sat, 28 Apr 2007 10:06:00 PST

"Ritual Path" CD is released!

We just received the new "Ritual Path" CDs and they look gorgeous, if I say so myself! It was my first attempt at doing the art layout for a CD -- thank goodness I had John Banks' beautiful art to wo...
Posted by Nijole Sparkis on Tue, 06 Mar 2007 01:45:00 PST

"Ritual Path" DVD released!

The long-awaited follow-up to visual artist John Banks' and composer Fritz Heede's "Illuminated Manuscripts" DVD is finally released! Entitled "Ritual Path", the DVD is a collection of natural images...
Posted by Nijole Sparkis on Tue, 06 Mar 2007 01:32:00 PST