YEMANJA: MOTHER OF THE DEEP

at the Electric Lodge, 1416 Electric Ave. Venice, CA 90291

Friday, March 30, 8pm

Saturday, March 31, 8pm

Sunday, April 1, 6pm

Saturday, April 7, 8pm

Sunday, April 8, 6pm

Advance ticket sales:  http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/231540

Prolific singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California, Mia Doi Todd returns with her 9th album, Cosmic Ocean Ship, produced by Jonathan Wilson.  Recorded in Los Angeles to analog 2 inch tape, the album has a warmth and depth that showcases Mia’s beautiful, powerful, unique, and at times delicate voice.  It is being released on City Zen Records/Virtual Label this Spring.

Inspired by interstellar journeys, reflective encounters with friends, and explorations of forest, beach, jungle, desert, and city in Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, France, and India, Mia searched deep within to communicate a new perspective for Cosmic Ocean Ship – one that transports the listener into the ecstatic radiance of intimate Love, and one that is yearning with an overall optimistic vision for the future of Planet Earth and the human experience.  In reaction against the political, economic, and environmental upheaval and devastation of the last decade, Mia felt compelled as an artist to take a stand and create something for our time that focuses on beauty, joy, light, and Love:

“Like all my songs, these are very earnest and personal, but I hope they are universal as well and can reach people’s hearts and turn them on!  Modern life demands a lot of the human mind and body; we become desensitized and hardened.  The songs on Cosmic Ocean Ship offer a chance for a softening, a heart opening. They are joyful!”

The whole record was tracked in just over 4 days, with Gabe Noel on bass, Andres Renteria on percussion, Adam MacDougall on keys and Jonathan Wilson both engineering and rotating on various instruments.  Most of the songs were recorded live with the band all playing together and Mia playing and singing in the same room.  Listening to Cosmic Ocean Ship, one hears the sweet nuanced relationship between the room, the tubes, the weathered circuitry, and the collective energy in the sessions.  There’s a real magic captured on tape here.

In addition to the original compositions that make up the majority of Cosmic Ocean Ship, Mia covers the classic lament “Gracias a la Vida” written by Chilean Folk artist Violeta Parra in 1966, and “Canto de Iemanjá,” the Afro Samba tribute to the great Orisha of the Ocean, by Baden Powell and Vinícius de Moraes.

Cosmic Ocean Ship is exactly the kind of music the world needs right now!  Honest, vulnerable, imaginative, courageous, and full of color and dimension.

US label, distribution, and press info: