Alaska is released in partnership with Softseed Musicin British Columbia on limited edition cassette tapes (32), each with one-of-a-kind swirl art made by Dave Norman of Softseed Music. The tapes are available at Softseedmusic.bandcamp.com and UnoLady.com.
Dave asked about collaborating on a tape right after my Alaskan adventure. The Wax Mage Records, Single Rider release was how I was introduced to Dave. He runs Softseed Music and Zegma Beach. Red Spade Records created a limited run lathe cut 10” and Dave hand dipped the swirl art.
ALASKA, Uno Lady’s 9th release, was recorded at an off-the-grid solar-powered arts fellowship at Chulitna Wilderness Lodge in Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, Alaska.
These songs were written in the moment and inspired by the landscape. You can hear the tranquility of the place within the songs. The percussion was made by drumming on trees and the beats are comprised of bird calls I recorded. These nature sounds pulse along with layers of vocal harmonies. These truly unique compositions are atmospheric and mesmerizing.
The album artwork is a photo I took on summer solstice. Taking advantage of the 22 hours of daylight, we zipped around by boat visiting different islands within Lake Clark and sipped on sun soaked teas made from flowers we foraged.
The art fellowship in Alaska was life changing. I was as enthusiastic as an eight year old over new plant discoveries. I didn’t anticipate creating an album. Being disconnected from social media and online distractions allowed me to absorb and be influenced by the atmosphere. I would record when I felt inspired, which was often. At the end of the 6 week adventure, I had 10 recordings and a new album. All the songs on ALASKA were a product of this once in a lifetime experience. Thank you Chulitna Lodge for sharing your space, good company, and delicious food. This album is dedicated to you and the artists involved (Here are related posts about my experience at the fellowship if you want to learn more 1 & 2).
In these coming weeks, I’ll share stories from each song and videos. Subscribe and follow to see. Here’s a link to all the streaming sites.
I’m excited to share my latest release, RISE, a song that celebrates interconnectivity and biodiversity. It is a call to action. A climate change anthem. Together we can protect the planet, and celebrate and nurture all beings on this earth. The water is rising but so are we.
Rise is a collaboration between musician Christa Ebert (Uno Lady) and artist Clare Celeste Börsch. The song offers a vision for the future where we live within our planetary boundaries, in community and thriving in mutual interconnectedness with the natural world. Inspired by the podcast How to Save a Planet‘s call to action to write a climate anthem, this is our offering to the movement. It is meant to be sung with others, with the clapping of hands and marching of feet. It is a song that is created through movement, in movement, together: through the power of We.
The song has field recordings throughout. The percussion is made of crows, chickadee calls, and hummingbird flutters. The beat is a leaky roof dripping into a metal bucket I recorded in France. There are sounds from streams in Switzerland and waves from Lake Erie. I hope you like it. Be good to the planet and to each other.
I reached out to Clare on IG because I adore her artwork and how she approaches activism. I contacted her to see if she was open to collaborate. I’m delighted for her receptiveness to work together and am excited to share this cross continent collaboration.
Watch the video premiere for “Don’t Break My Heart.” Filmed at the Little Rose Tavern by Diana Hlywiak, “Don’t Break My Heart” features Christa Ebert (Uno Lady) with Cleveland musicians Beth Hiser (Bass), Theresa May (Trumpet), and Roseanna Safos (Drums).
LandEscape is an international art publication for established and emerging artists to engage in professional critique and artistic introspection, that aims to open the dialogue between artists and audience, between thoughts and their articulation.
Members / Instruments Christa Ebert, vocals and whatever I bang together for percussion
Years Active 2006 – present
Latest GROUNDED– released January 12, 2021
Favorite Local Artists Mourning [A] BLKstar
Current Album on Repeat Monster Rally – Castaways, Vol. 1
Currently ReadingReal Love, The Art of a Mindful Connection, by Sharon Salzberg
Favorite Venue to Perform I loved singing in the Superior Viaduct, the lower level of the Detroit Superior Bridge but that’s a rare occasion they let an art event happen there. Happy Dog feels like a second home so I love and miss singing there too.https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=917498454/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/minimal=true/
How is everyone holding up during this time?
I’m holding up alright. I cannot wait to hug all my friends this summer. I am used to recording and writing on my own. I craved time to create before covid and I have it now. It’s not the ideal situation nor inspiring but I’m doing my best to focus on the silver lining of this continuous catastrophe, stay safe, and fill my time with art. I have gotten better at giving myself permission to rest and move at a slower pace.
What do you think is the biggest lesson we can all take away from this past year?
Slowing down, we were made to collectively pause. The biggest lesson is reevaluating what is important in our lives and what is worth risking our health and happiness over. I think many people have a better understanding and recognize the impact our actions have on each other. Also, learning how to show love to family and friends without embracing each other.
I hope to find hand soap in every music venue bathroom moving forward.
Tell us about how this project got started?
I started recording as Uno Lady because I had to sing and create. Music is part of me. I wasn’t sure how to organize a band so I just started singing and layering into a music program and then people started to ask me to play shows.
Are you working on anything new / specific at the moment?
My latest project GROUNDED released in two parts: A short film aired December 2020 and the album released digitally through Bandcamp January 2021. GROUNDED is mindfulness mantras, soothing songs, and guided meditations. The sights match the sounds. Slightly modulated, natural layers of vocal and video to help find peace in the present moment.
I filmed mostly in my backyard. Stop-motion animations were created with homegrown flowers and sweet potatoes, drawings and paintings. The film depicts a busy mind and uses hypnotic mantras to retrain focus. Some songs are lyricless, ambient, and the visuals abstract – others pieces feature natural sounds and have breathing exercises intertwined. The first track, “Thinking About Thinking” is a stop-motion animation that shows my MRI images with stop-motion thought bubbles floating through. The animated bubbles dissipate to show these thoughts and emotions pass.
I’ve never had this much time to focus on a project and the quality is better than anything else I have made. I’m really proud of it and excited to share it.
Anyone you’ve collaborated with recently?
I’m grateful to work with a few talented friends on this release. Sequoia Bostick added the hypnotic animations to a few songs: Ways We Wish The World Was, Ditch Resistance, Chill Out For One Minute, and Here Now. I added modulated nature visuals behind her animations.
Meditations are guided by LaToya Kent and Erica Snowden-Rodríguez. LaToya is a meditation teacher and musician who performs solo and as a part of Mourning [A] BLKstar. You can hear her calming voice guide you through the meditations Breathe and You Are Love. Erica plays cello in the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra and is Principal Cello at Erie Philharmonic and Principal cello at Akron Symphony Orchestra and guides the beautiful breathing exercise, Meditación.
Both artists were approached with a breathing exercise idea but allowed creative freedom. Written separately but together, the recordings were sent to me and then I composed vocals and music around their words. I’m so happy with the results.
What’s the biggest thing that your band could use help with (Promotion, Recording, Merch, Booking, Touring, etc)?
Promotion and touring when it’s safe. I think Cleveland has so many wonderful musicians, amazing venues, and also manufacturing like GottaGrooveRecords, but we don’t have management services like booking, promoting, and labels. We’re stuck promoting ourselves in a town that takes pride in being an underdog. It can be challenging to get press or book shows outside of the local bubble.
Strangest thing you’ve heard from someone at a concert?
Too many to mention but I really enjoyed receiving a handwritten note that read, “Do you yodel?”
What has your recording experience been like?
I love the recording process and sometimes it is my writing process. I record my home studio and use Logic Pro. Some of my songs are 40-70 vocal tracks so going into someone else’s studio is not the best fit. I’m pretty meticulous too and re-record those tracks.
What’s the next move?
I’m going to keep doing what I do, chip away at recording an excel list of 100+ songs, and hope a fitting opportunity comes along. I’d love to compose songs for films and that is why I began working with video art. I know I have more meditation songs in me. I have some songs and videos from a residency in France I’d love to finish. I got a jingle business idea in my pocket. The possibilities are endless
I spent all summer socially distant, researching, writing, growing flowers and filming nature in my backyard. For GROUNDED, I researched the healing effects of sound and mindfulness and listened to dozens of audiobooks through the Library. To create some of the songs (Here Now, Awaken the Peace Within, Binaural Bees) I’d meditate in the garden, film flowers, capture nature sounds, and then go into my studio to record. Every song was sung in a positive mindset with loving and healing intentions. Every flower filmed was captured in the hope of making you smile. At the very least, I hope sharing these pretty sights and sounds will help you zone out for 20 minutes and share ways to show love to yourself and the people you care about.
The album is made up of mindfulness exercises, mantras, and meditations. For it, I wrote minute long mantras of positive affirmations to balance out the experience of negative thoughts—and I feel like it has worked. Some mornings I wake up with a song called “Good Vibes” or “Four-Square Breathing Box” as my first morning thought rather than a.m. dread.
LaToya Kent is a musician and meditation teacher. She radiates love and is so cool and calm. I asked her to record meditations, gave her creative freedom, trusted her expertise and then wrote music around her words (Breathe, You Are Love).
Free time to focus on art is what I craved most, pre-pandemic. I decided to make something good come of a tragic situation. When life is full of worry, it’s important to balance perspective. Even when chaos is overwhelming, there are beautiful occurrences still happening. I recognizemy privilege. I can stay home. I have a home. I have a garden. How can I share these privileges while social distancing?
My music has a hypnotic meditative quality. Over the years people have requested I make more meditations. The first one I composed, 5 Minute Meditation (Amateur Hour, 2014) poked fun at my fleeting attention span. I didn’t realize it was relatable. For years, I have meditated and assumed that I was bad at it. I thought my overactive thinking was a unique curse. However, I misunderstood the mechanics of the brain. Now I know that we are all constantly thinking—organic machines are made for it. It is the judgement we tie to these thoughts that cause our suffering. Fighting and suppressing these throughs is pointless and only increases distress.
I am not a doctor, but I am a self-proclaimed expert at experiencing worry and anxiety. I share my vulnerability and path to peace through my art in hopes it helps you too. Making this album has helped me articulate and find a path to self-acceptance. It has allowed me to acknowledge my overthinking brain and offer it kindness and love. Since making this album, I have experienced moments of mental silence for the first time.
In the past, I wrongly assumed I was too antsy to meditate. I sought out learning different forms and it tried running, sitting, and standing. Chanting is what made me realize that I have been meditating my whole life. And I’m good at it. Singing is my meditation. It is deep breathing. Vocalization sends healing vibrations into the various parts of my body. Singing and songwriting is where I find flow and can be in the present moment. I think back at times when I was unable to sing, and remember feeling miserable, in pain, and experiencing mental distress. Songs are my soul singing. My breath is my spirit. Music is my medicine.
I hope this film helps you explore meditation in whatever form works for you. Please sing or hum along if you so desire. If it brings you joy, please do it. We can all use more moments of happiness right now.
This film is only a fraction of the record. The digital album will release early January through Bandcamp. There will be more meditation videos released then too.
GROUNDED is supported by the SPACES Urgent Art Fund and by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
