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Alex Ookpik (Alexandra Olsen) is a chanteuse and compositrice from Montréal. Her music bridges the worlds of pop and experimental music; taking in acoustic instruments, field recordings, and studio manipulations, while ever remaining true to the song.
She was raised on her dad’s experimental and classical records and her mom’s soul, jazz and Alice Coltrane records. Her Nana was a singer in the radio back in the 30s. She also soaked up a lot of the new wave and eletro-soul she heard on the radio growing up.
She has be singing since she was a child, and has studied flute, electroacoustics and sound design. In high school she had a new wave band, playing depeche mode and cure covers. She also sang some folk and jazz songs.
She started DJing when she was 18, playing 20th century classical on college radio, and old punk & psychedelic at a two-night weekly residency at Montreal’s Roy Bar. Later playing various nights in Montreal and Toronto at places like Green Room, Blizzarts, O Patro Vys, Cocktail Molotov and Cobalt.
In 1995, she co-founded the Montreal post-rock and shoegaze band Marlowe—acting as the lead singer, co-songwriter, and keyboardist until 2005. They released 2 records: “Galax-sea†(1998) and “He’s There and He Is Funny†(Maple, 2004). They shared live shows with various people including: Tindersticks, Snowpony (ex-My Bloody Valentine & Stereolab), Broken Social Scene, Apostle of Hustle, the Besnard Lakes, The Golden Dogs, The High Dials, The Organ, Stars, The Dears, and April March.
Since that time she has been working on her first solo album, as well as composing for theatre and film, and working on various collaborations. She has also participated in various live performances: performing as a member of avant-cellist Anne Bourne's improvisational choir Sonor Mara, as well as singing with she friends Raising the Fawn both on their album "the Maginot Line", and live at the Olympic Island show.
Current activities:
- Writing and recording in preparation for her first solo release.
- Composing music for Praxis Theatre's upcoming production “Strangerâ€â€”an adaptation of Camus’s The Outsider.
- Playing keyboards with her good friend Eiyn Sof for her live performances.
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alex ookpik = alex olsen = alexandra olsen
On LastFM
New Note: Check out my new song "Right On Time" with my friend musician, songwriter and producer Julian Bell. It's quite different from my other projects--much more pop and dance--as well as different for me in terms of the creation of the song: I provided the bare vocal tracks, and then he wrote the music around it; sampling and reconfiguring it all into an entirely new beast. :-)
