artist luxury pond

Luxury Pond set to release album and embark on Canadian tour

Toronto – Dan Goldman is set to release his second album under his Luxury Pond moniker on June 16th through Sonic Unyon Distribution. The self-titled album of new songs featuring the St.Kitts String Quartet as arranged by Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy), was produced by David Travers-Smith (Veda Hille, Spiral Beach)  and Dan Goldman.  Upon its release Luxury Pond will be playing a string of shows starting on Canada’s West Coast (dates below).  An additional tour of eastern and central Canada will be announced shortly.

Still in its pre-release stages, the new album was featured in its entirety on NPR's Spinning On Air in New York City and chosen as a recent favorite by CBC's The Signal. Goldman was also recently selected as the 2009 recipient of KM Hunter Music Award.

Luxury Pond  was recorded in one day at CBC's studio 211 (Toronto) :

“Owen and I got the string arrangements down in the months leading up to the recording,” says Goldman. “We rehearsed a few times and all of the musicians were stellar. That said, I went into the process willing to trade the idea of ‘perfection’ for a feeling of honesty.”

Luxury Pond sees Goldman stepping away from the linear lyrical approach he took for his first album Through A Revolution, and using stream of conscious wordplay ala Wilco's Ghost Is Born period.  "I'm definitely a fan of the surrealist approach to humor in music; when perspective is skewed, proportions are thrown out the window and your brain is tickled because you're seeing something familiar in a new light." Pre-historic sharks, criminal kids and reluctant biblical heroes are some of the protagonists on the album given this loose lyrical treatment.

The new album shares its predecessor’s affection for contrasting tightly woven arrangements with glitchy improvisations, but takes a big step forward by injecting a live energy that bring the songs to life. "I threw improvising jester Ryan Driver (The Silt, Deep Dark United) into the mix because I felt the arrangements would benefit from playful deconstruction."

Dan Goldman will be taking Luxury Pond in duo formation to galleries and other impromptu theatre-like spaces where people are in a comfortable listening environment and the subtleties of the music come across. "Daniela Gesundheit (aka Snowblink), who sang on the album, plays small percussion toys, loops her vocals, plays a short wave radio and sometimes sings through a wine glass. She'll also be vocalizing in a new style she's coined 'Tiny R&B'. I sing, play guitar and bass pedals. We try to get as much textural variety out of two people. We use the recorded material as a reference but mostly, we're reinventing arrangements from show to show.”