Lenka's first Fray recording - "yiddish ethno-jazz" - was nominated "World Music Album of the Year - solo" by 2011 Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Fray marks a new direction for Lenka's song-writing, and literally opened a world of possibilities. Almost immediately, new material in this new style began emerging, and already a new record is waiting to be born. Embrace will be released on April 28, 2013.
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ABOUT "Fray" - name of the project, of the recording series, and of the band.
Fray : a fresh new sound….
Inspired by the soundscape of Toronto, Lenka has enlisted the talents of a unique assemblage of musicians rooted in diverse musical traditions for her fourth and most adventurous solo CD project Fray (”free”). Blending classical Indian, Egyptian, and Middle-Eastern music with North and South American styles, Fray takes Yiddish-based music into the world of global roots and rhythms, blending styles and transcending boundaries, thus carving a new space in contemporary world music for Yiddish culture.
Fray (band) features members of Tasa, one of Canada’s leading Indo-Canadian world/jazz groups: Ravi Naimpally (tabla, darbuka), Alan Hetherington (drums, percussion), Ernie Tollar (flutes, saxophones), John Gzowski (guitars, oud), and Chris Gartner (bass; on recording, George Koller). Special guests include Roula Said (qanun, voice; George Sawa on recording); Kevin Fox (cello); Kinneret Sagee (clarinet) and Alexis Basque (trumpet, cornet). Since its release in September, 2010, Fray toured in Argentina, Quebec and Poland, showcased in NYC in January, 2012, and performed with Yair Dalal in Vancouver in February. "Lenka Lichtenberg & Fray" began recording Embrace in the spring of 2012; release will take place on April 28, 2013, at Toronto's famed Glenn Gould Studio.
