(Entertainment-NewsWire.com, July 10, 2015 ) Paekakariki, New Zealand -- Internationally talented band Floating Trees release their long-awaited album, entitled "The River Rages On."
The album features the rich emotive voice and haunting violin of Shona Jaunas, with evocative blues-tinged guitar and harmonica from multi-instrumentalist Samuel Harmand. Echoes of the Delta Blues, floating Hawaiian slide guitar and Polynesian-inspired melodies enrich this deep and soulful production, recorded in Paekakariki, New Zealand.
Floating Trees describe themselves as "..providing the perfect soundtrack for those lazy afternoons.", but a deeper listen to the lyrics reveals an awareness of darker, more urgent themes. "Come and Play" talks about the notorious Roast-Buster scandal in New Zealand, when several teenage girls were sexually assaulted by two boys who called themselves the "roast busters". Seemingly ignored by the police at the time, much controversy was stirred up leading to a national campaign demanding the police investigate why the girl's complaints were not followed up. Around the same time came the story of a New Zealand girl in Surfer's paradise who went on a Tinder date and ended up murdered
As singer Shona puts it : "I was just so tired of reading about young women who would go out to party and end up hurt or dead because an encounter with a man had gone wrong. I wanted to write a song for those women, tell their story."
Floating Trees will be playing in London and Paris in September. Details will be disclosed soon after confirmation on their website, www.floatingtrees.com where the album is available for purchase.
About Floating Trees: Shona Jaunas is a singer/songwriter violinist based in New Zealand, but spends most summers in Europe working on different projects. She has played with Strung Out String Quartet and The Crimson Club as well as collaborating on numerous theatre and dance projects, The Body Cartography Company, American Drama Group Europe and The Rude Mechanical Theatre Company. Session recordings include Rhian Shian , Rosie Brown, Jess Chambers, and Rosy Tin Tea Caddy.
Samuel Harmand is from Angouleme in France. He plays lots of different guitars, banjo, ukelele, harmonica, all of which you can hear on the album; he also plays Japanese flute and makes incredible sushi. (Although he would tell you it is not just sushi, it is also maki....) his influences from the 50s are Charley Patton, Blind Boy Fuller, Robert Johnson, John Hurt, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker. He is also very influenced by Hawaiian music from the 30s, King Benny Nawahi, Sol Hooppi and more recent artists Kelly Joe Phelps and Bob Brozman. His harmonica influences are Little Walter, Sony Boy Williamson and Son of Dave.
For this album Chris Winters joined them on trumpet, Riki Gooch (Trinity Roots) drums, Ross McDermott, bass and spoons, Janet Holborow cello, Melissa Garber percussion.
