13th Floor New Song Of The Day: Age Pryor – Catherine Wheel

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Its Monday, and what better way to start the working week than with this new song from Age Pryor, titled Catherine Wheel.

This is the first in a series of new singles that will result in a new album. Read the Record Company Blurb for all the details:

Multi-talented musician Age Pryor has today released ‘Catherine Wheel’, the debut single from his forthcoming solo album Invisible Lines.

Composed and recorded at his home studio in Piha, Age says the warm and reflective single “evokes the feeling of trying to reach something that is unattainable – trying to be something that you feel you could be, but never quite arriving.

”A Catherine Wheel is a kind of firework that’s enticing and untouchable. The song is pretty – celebratory in a way – and has a tinge of sadness as well.”

The new single – which was mixed by Neil Baldock – is accompanied by the news that Age will be releasing his first solo album in 14 years. “A lot of time has passed since I released work under my own name, so there’s some relief mixed in there. It feels like drawing a new mark in the sand from which I can jump in new directions,” he says of the record.

”I’m excited to be releasing new solo work, and always enjoy the contrast between working on my own and the collaborative process of bigger groups.”

In the years between Age has spent time as key player in a number of much-loved collaborative music projects (Fly My Pretties, Congress of Animals and The Woolshed Sessions, among others), composed for film and television, toured the world as musical director and executive producer of The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra and helped develop the next generation of contemporary musicians at Auckland tertiary institute Unitec.

For Age, Invisible Lines represents an intersection of songwriting craft, live performance and electronic production, something he’s been “enjoying exploring”.

The record also forms an invisible line with his 2003 debut solo album, City Chorus, for the similarities in process and having the space to do what really, truly felt right.

”The process of making those two albums has been similar – allowing myself the time to carve out musical spaces that feel good, following threads, making discoveries that might not have come if I’d been in a hurry,” he says.

The significance of the invisible connections that exist between people and places can be seen in Sam O’Leary’s spellbinding album and single artwork. O’Leary – a Kiwi designer based in Portland, Oregon – put those subtleties to paper, with the artwork embodying everything Invisible Lines is – an album that uses nuanced songwriting, crisp production and sonic depth to tell stories that speak to the human experiences.

One single from the album will be released every Friday going forward, until the full album is released on August 6.

ABOUT AGE:
Age Pryor is a composer and performer who has been working in the New Zealand music industry for over 25 years.

He has been a central player in many high profile collaborative projects including Fly My Pretties, Congress of Animals, The Woolshed Sessions and the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra. His music has appeared in numerous film, television and theatre soundtracks.

Age is a veteran cast member of the hugely successful multi-media project Fly My Pretties and contributed original songs to four of their seven albums. His composition Singing In My Soul, from the Fly My Pretties album Live at Bats, appeared in the HBO hit show Weeds and is widely considered a NZ classic. Age remains an active member of the Fly My Pretties collective, sharing the stage with a rotating cast of New Zealand’s top independent songwriters and musicians.

Age was the musical director and executive manager of the wildly popular ukulele ensemble The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, and was studio producer for all 6 albums made by that group. An institution in NZ, The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra wowed audiences around the globe, with tours in the UK, China, Japan and Australia, culminating in a 40-show tour across USA in 2016.

Over the years, Age has toured New Zealand extensively, performing solo, with his bands, and as a session player for others including Anika Moa and Jess Chambers, the latter including opening slots in 2009 for touring internationals Fleet Foxes and K T Tunstall. Age has also worked at different stages with Flight of the Conchords, live in NZ and on their first and third albums.

Age’s compositions have appeared regularly on radio and television shows such as Shortland Street and Outrageous Fortune, and the songs “Funny Shadow” and “I Don’t Want” were used in the Miramax feature film Eagle vs Shark, featuring in the soundtrack album released worldwide.

Age has taken the helm as producer with solo artists, bands and commercial clients such as Whitcoulls, Telecom, Resene Paints and Trustpower.

Age has a broad range of experience as a music educator and for ten years was a lecturer in the Performing and Screen Arts Diploma in Contemporary Music course at Unitec in Auckland, focusing on collaborative performance, composition, music technology and music theory.

Click here for more about Age Pryor.

Marty Duda
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