Posted on: August 27, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

elf-taught multi-instrumentalist Julie Peel is preparing to unleash her debut full-length album, Near the Sun, September 2009 on American Laundromat Records. Previously featured on ALR compilations including Just Like Heaven (a tribute to the Cure), Gigantic (a tribute to Kim Deal), Dig for Fire (a tribute to the Pixies), and Cinnamon Girl (a tribute to Neil Young), this will be Julie’s first solo full-length release. She counts Aimee Mann, Beth Orton, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell among her influences, and their impact is not hard to discern on Near the Sun. Julie’s lo-fi, guitar-driven pop recalls the likes of Ida, Anna Ternheim, Caithlin de Marrais, and Mirah, but bears her own distinctive indie sensibility and style. Sample the new release with “Unfold” which Julie and ALR are offering for free download. Direct link below.

Born in Cannes, Julie was raised between France and Canada, and sings entirely in English on this album. As a child, she tended toward self-determination. “At 5,” she explains, “I would take my bike and go for long rides in the countryside… Sometimes I would go fishing by myself.” Though her mother worried, Julie always came home “like it’s normal a 5-6 year old kid would go out all day so far away.” That independent spirit is evident throughout Near the Sun, which Julie recorded, mixed, and produced on her own. She plays most of the instruments as well, though she is also joined on bass, cello, and upright bass by Cyrille Catois (who she met in 2005 and has worked with consistently ever since) and on drums by Andreas Dahlbäck (drummer and producer for Anna Ternheim).

Though her contributions to the ALR compilations were noteworthy in their own right, this collection of original material bears testimony to Julie Peel’s own dynamic pop sensibilities. Keep an eye out for Near the Sun, and look for her hitting the road across the US later in 2009.

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