Los Angeles, CA - December 3, 2013 - UK's seminal dance trio Above & Beyond will release "Above & Beyond Acoustic". Earlier this year, the group performed some of their best-loved songs acoustically with a 12-piece band, across three sold out shows at London's legendary Porchester Hall. The response from fans was overwhelming and led to two sold-out nights at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles in October, described by Billboard Magazine as "one of the finest and more memorable shows in EDM history."
Partnering with Vice's Thump channel on the production and filming of the London shows, the group will release a documentary film on January 24th capturing the Porchester Hall performance and the story behind the acoustic project.
Above & Beyond is Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness and Paavo Siljamäki, and their story is one of constant movement - from their early days as producers remixing Madonna and Radiohead, to their current global standing (DJ Magazine has called Above & Beyond 'The biggest electronic DJing and production collective the UK has ever produced.') The trio have played to one million people on Barra Beach in Rio de Janeiro (New Year's Eve in 2007), soundtracked the launch of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo in the Mojave desert, and sold out the Hollywood Palladium faster than anyone in history. Every week their Group Therapy radio show reaches over 25 million people worldwide.
"The acoustic project is a reconnection with the musicians that we were before we met,' said Above & Beyond's Tony McGuinness. 'The songs have been on an interesting journey to get here because we tend to write in a fairly acoustic way anyway. We don't just stick a bit of vocal over a dance track - that's not how we work. We try to start with a song and it's usually only later down the line that we take certain elements from that song and progress them into a more dancefloor-friendly version."
With Above & Beyond Acoustic, the group are putting aside their CDJs and lighting rigs to showcase their deeply-rooted musicianship and classical training. A band first and foremost,Above & Beyond are songwriters as much as they are DJs. Working with three singers, a string quartet, harpist, drummer and bassist, Above & Beyond are pushing the boundaries of EDM. Tony McGuinness sings and plays guitar, mandolin and ukulele, Paavo Siljamäki plays the grand piano and cello, and Jono Grant plays the Rhodes piano, guitar and vibraphone.
Billboard Magazine elaborated on Above & Beyond's acoustic performance, saying: 'across their 90-minute set, they proved not only the durability of their own material, but the possibility in transposing the entire genre of trance to live instrumental form...Rather than merely reinterpreting the lush strings and extended loops of their records, the group rearranged their catalogue, rendering much of their material anew. As other artists of the EDM era look to find what makes them unique or durable, they would benefit from walking in the ground broke by Above & Beyond with this acoustic project.'
Above & Beyond Acoustic draws on the band's greatest tracks, across numerous single releases, two Above & Beyond artist albums, 'Tri-State' (2006) and 'Group Therapy' (2011), and their Oceanlab LP 'Sirens of the Sea.'
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