The Bittersweet Constrain is unveiled! Tell the WORLD!
"Few things are finer than drowning in anticipation for a new album -- having that album arrive and, most importantly, having that album more than satisfy said anticipation. The Bittersweet Constrain is wonderfully dark, mischievous and mesmerizing... twilight tales of spurned love, untimely ends and thoughts lost in the shadows, slowly creeping unseen and meaning to not merely embrace, but drag us down into those oh-so-wrong exalted states. What a bloody good record."
L'ENNUI MÉLODIEUX
"Just glancing at the front cover (shot by surrealist photographer Michael Garlington) of The Bittersweet Constrain and you know that you're in for something beautiful-- beautiful and dark. Jill Tracy's voice and piano skills are both of equal, remarkable merit. She's a master of them both, and yet she seems to get swept up in her own work... as if she's also the *mistress* to both her voice and piano. Her music can tease like a new lover, whisper like an old lover or snap like a scorned lover...The end result is like the evil twin of lounge/jazz, like a film noir score that comes from the elegant elseworld where shadows of The Doors and Edith Piaf cross (if this was a film you know it would have been shot by David Lynch)." SEPIACHORD
"The Bittersweet Constrain is a fantastic, mood setting record-- spooky, sexy, slinky, and has a transcendent old tyme feel... it’s classic Jill Tracy and that’s good."
COLLECTED SOUNDS
The Bittersweet Constrain today from our dear friends at Projekt and CD Baby . You will also find the album on Amazon , iTunes and most online retailers. They carry Jill Tracy's other titles too.
Autographed first-edition copies--Just a handful left!!
125 Records is offering a SIGNED & NUMBERED EDITION OF THE FIRST 99 COPIES OF THE BITTERSWEET CONSTRAIN! You can't get these anywhere else!
Your autographed copy will come with two collectible Jill Tracy postcards, and your name will be automatically entered into a grand prize drawing to win a limited edition October Effigies autographed Jill Tracy doll, the infamous "Victorian corpse cooler" Jill Tracy and The Malcontent Orchestra T-shirt, or an autographed Jill Tracy photo! Hurry-—while supplies last! Click to order
"It's nice to have discovered another artist of depth and substance, especially in an age where it's easy to feel that almost none still exist... Jill Tracy: "the elegant side of the netherworld" - maybe "netherworld" has replaced "underground" now. No wonder (Jello) Biafra had raved to me about her. The new music of the future will give us history lessons, and restore to us our lost authentic emotionality, in an age which J.G. Ballard has described as "the death of affect." The death of authentic emotionality and emotional response, indeed... NOT YET - not as long as a handful of people like Jill Tracy, Jello Biafra, Nick Cave, Henry Rollins, and Lydia Lunch keep "kicking against the pri-cks" (to paraphrase Shakespeare). And handing us reasons to still keep living and deciphering what we really feel..."
V.Vale, RE/Search Publications
"Jill Tracy draws you breathless and lustfully into her dark and sinister world; and it's a world unlike any other, for despite all the comparisons I could make (Edward Gorey & The Tiger Lillies, Tim Burton, Nick Cave writing true murder ballads for Nico), she is nonetheless quite unique. Her music is incredibly filmic in quality...But that's one of the beautiful things with this album; it's not just the music, not just the lyrics, not even just the mood & scene it sets, but the whole gorey picture it sets which gives a much fuller appreciation of how Jill views our world. For despite all it's old world pretentions, inspirations from the past, the vision is very much one of now. Diabolically wonderful."
GLAMOURAMA- UK
onstage in Victoria, British Columbia (photo by Dani Boynton)
About JILL TRACY:
Jill Tracy is both villainess and heroine of her own musical netherworld. The San Francisco-based artist has garnered multiple awards and a devoted following for her evocative cinematic music, sophisticated lyrics, old-world glamour, and curious passion for strange tales.
Hailed by countless critics as a “femme fatale for the thinking man,†Jill Tracy was described by NPR's All Things Considered as "utterly intriguing... luring you into a magical kingdom solely of her creation." LA Weekly calls her "very distinctive and exciting."
As a youngster, Jill Tracy was drawn to classic suspense, film noir, and horror movie scores, which she cites today as some of her strongest influences. These passions are evident in her unusually cinematic performance style. Virtually self taught, her singular blend of dark, dreamy flourishes, hypnotic grooves and classical-cum-parlour piano conjures up shades of another era, but at the same time, the sound is shockingly new. She is as much Nick Cave as she is Erik Satie. As much David Bowie as she is Mata Hari. As much Bernard Herrmann as she is Robert Smith of The Cure.
"There's something otherworldly about Jill Tracy," writes the Santa Cruz Metro. "She has a poise, finesse and enigmatic quality rarely seen in live performance--she effortlessly floats above the fray."
Jill Tracy combines elegance and intellect with a mesmerizing flair. And with her trademark voice of cut-velvet smoke, she reveals a talent for making rather unsettling subjects remarkably alluring.
Tales of medieval torture devices, safety coffins, suicides, and lusty murderous obsessions mingle with exquisite songs of lost loves and tarnished passions. Tracy's affinity for macabre history and science, has included resurrecting classic Grand Guignol stage plays from the 1920's-- collaborating with San Francisco's theatre troupe Thrillpeddlers, and well-known historians like UC Berkeley's Mel Gordon (Voluptuous Panic.)
Backed by an alluring panoply of strings, woodwinds, drums and percussion, (Tracy affectionately refers to them as The Malcontent Orchestra) songs from her album Diabolical Streak have appeared in movies and compilations, in addition to winning the SIBL international grand prize for songwriting, and two California Music Award nominations. The track "Evil Night Together" has not only been adopted as theme song for nouveau burlesque and bellydance troupes around the globe, but also is featured on Projekt's A Dark Cabaret, and recently on the CBS hit TV show NAVY NCIS, the BBC series Jekyll, LifeTime television, and numerous independent films.
Jill Tracy and The Malcontent Orchestra's beloved original score to F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent vampire classic Nosferatu found the band touring Northern California theatres during Halloween season for five consecutive years to manic sell-out crowds. The 2002 live CD Into the Land of Phantoms contains selections from the Nosferatu score.
"The Fine Art of Poisoning" was developed into an animated short in 2003, a collaboration with Bay Area visual artist Bill Domonkos. The film has garnered well over 30 film festival awards internationally, including Best Experimental Film in the New Orleans Film Festival as well as Best Music Video in both the Chicago and Seattle International Film Festivals.
Her latest (and fourth) album, The Bittersweet Constrain, has a heavier, cinematic sonic edge with the addition of exotic instruments such as the sarod, harmonium, and seldom-seen Chapman Stick. The recording also features master percussionist Randy Odell, horn player Ralph Carney (Tom Waits/B52's), cellist Erica Mulkey (Rasputina/Unwoman), and violinist Tony Cross (Tarentel).
Produced by Alex Nahas (John Vanderslice/Zoe Keating/LaughingStock), The Bittersweet Constrain has been described by the press as "devastatingly beautiful."
Domonkos served as art director/graphic designer for The Bittersweet Constrain. The CD packaging features Jill Tracy portraiture by acclaimed surrealist photographer Michael Garlington, known for his dreamy macabre imagery shot on vintage film stock.
With her forays into film scoring, filmmaking, writing, acting and theatre, Jill Tracy is redefining the image of modern day renaissance artist. But beneath her trademark sound and style lurks cold steel. No corporate-contrived cookie cutter blandness here. She is refreshing proof that smart... is sexy.
CURRENT MOON moon info
brand new! the official video for "Haunted by the Thought of You"
"The Fine Art of Poisoning"
"Haunted by the Thought of You" live at Portland's Crystal Ballroom
"Torture" live at the Crystal Ballroom
"The Coronation of the Witch Queen" Parts 1 and 2 (live w/ Paul Mercer)
"The Coronation of the Witch Queen" Part 3 (live w/ Paul Mercer)
the trailer for Ice Cream Ants
View Jill Tracy film projects and screen picks on her You Tube Channel .
