Singer, keyboardist and composer Emily Bezar has been compared to both Kate Bush and Tori Amos, but her song-writing veers away from pop convention so dramatically that it's hard to classify her. She's a classically trained musician (Oberlin Conservatory, Stanford University) who decided to forgo a career in opera to pursue her own musical vision, but this is far from the standard "diva-murdering-pop-tunes" fare. Her songs fuse rock, jazz, and electronic music into evocative textures, and her piano playing is abstract and edgy, setting off broad melodies. Among her influences are Richard Strauss, Ravel, Weill, Stockhausen, Sondheim, Joni Mitchell and Keith Jarrett.

Emily has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1991 and performs regularly in both classical and club venues. From 1991-1993 she was a member of San Francisco's acclaimed band, The Potato Eaters. Her first solo album, Grandmother's Tea Leaves, was named "one of the two most impressive debuts of 1994" by Stereophile Magazine, and Keyboard Magazine calls her a "rare and valuable" talent. Her second album, Moon in Grenadine, features a trio of some of San Francisco's best young electric jazz players, (Morris Acevedo on guitar, Andrew Higgins on bass and Steve Rossi on drums) and reveals the depth of her musical background and influences. It was named one of Stereophile's "Records to Die For" in 1997.

In October 1999 she releases her third album, Four Walls Bending, her most jazz and rock-infused work yet. Her earliest musical influences show up here in striking contrast to her classical training but she makes the combination seem as normal as cake and ice cream. "When I was in highschool, I went through this phase where I used to turn on Pink Floyd's Meddle every night as I went to sleep...then my first boyfriend left me for an older woman who could play all of Blue on the piano. That's how I discovered Joni Mitchell... I began to devour Hissing, Hejira, Mingus, Don Juan. I think I learned to play my version of Emily-jazz from Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert and Joni's mid-70's stuff. I relayed alot of her guitar tunings onto the piano."

Four Walls Bending is also a document of transition. Emily had her first child in 1997 and her first impressions of motherhood are all here: the upheaval and fear of responsibility, the joy, and the powerful instinct to bend the house down to protect a precious creation. "Much of this album was written while I was either high on pregnancy hormones or in a semi-lucid haze of sleep-deprivation. At first I was afraid to publish any music from this period 'cause I felt that I was so newly altered - that it would be too early to form a musical response... but art is most true when it's from the trenches, I guess. So I kept it, finished it, even though 5 years from now I'll have a whole new perspective on this time." Her stellar "Moon..." band is back in fine form on Four Walls Bending and for you audiophile addicts, this is Emily's first album to be recorded on analog tape the old-fashioned way.

Bezar produces and arranges her own albums, and runs her own Berkeley, California-based record label, DemiVox Records. Her singing has been featured on several multimedia and documentary soundtracks, and her keyboard work can be heard on the albums of other Bay Area songwriters (Jessie Turner, Ira Marlowe). She collaborates frequently with singer and electronic composer Amy X Neuburg, with whom she attended Oberlin.

. Four Walls Bending (1999)
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1. Velvet Eye [mp3]
2. Kingdom Come
3. Four Walls Bending
4. Lead
5. Filigree of Noon
6. Sigh
7. Maybe So
8. Black Sand
9. Rondo
10. His Everything

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1. 40 Mansions
2. Mosquito in the Shade
3. White Cedar
4. Dream Gasoline
5. Opiate Cheer
6. Rain in Calgary
7. Gingerbread
8. Chevalier Lune
9. In This House
10. Dancing Past Elysium
11. Ever Mine

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1. Hypertrophia
2. Avalanche
3. I Really Don't
4. Grandmother's Tea Leaves
5. La Place Dauphine
6. Just Like Orestes
7. I Tear Down
8. Barricade
9. Rest Me Here
10. Madame's Reverie

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Norine Braun has been writing songs and lyrics for over a decade. Her repertoire ranges from ethereal, reflective mood music to up-tempo, hard-edged rock and blues that test the limit of popular music. She is inspired by the struggle to find meaning in the human experience. Her lyrics, although provocative, do not lose touch with her whimsical nature.

Norine Brings a passion to her strong vocal presence and was the recipient of the New Talent Demo Award (1993) by FACTOR in Canada. Norine independently released her fist CD, "Modern Anguish," in the autumn of 1996.

"Miles To Go," her second original collection, contains both sophisticated and simple pining, exploring the darker undercurrents of her psyche. Her CD ws released independently on February 12th, '99 and is available at HMV, A&B, Sam's, Chapters and Zulu in the indie section. Both CD's have been A James Bowers Production.

Currently, Norine is playing local venues in the lower mainland with her newly formed, "Norine Braun and The Mood Swings." They have played at Cafe Deux Soleil, El Cocal and are regulars at Myles Of Beans Coffeehouse, featuring songs from both her CD's. Norine also gives solo performances as a singer/songwriter at open mic's and appeared on Just Singing Round at the Anza Club. She has also performed several of her songs along with the Mood Swings on the VTV Breakfast Show. The songs Dancing Sea from her debut cd was featured on the new tv series premiere Wings Over Canada and Miles To Go was used on their third episode as well in the fall of 1999.

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Miles To Go
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1. Persephone
2. Wounded little Bird
3. Naivete/Hysteria
4. Safe With You
5. The Wind
6. Running On The Edge
7. Little Lamb
8. Ballad of Magic Man
9. Goodbye Caramel
10. Her Story
11. Jenny
12. Lonely Avenue
13. Miles To Go

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