Lisa Bella Donna for Progressive Electronic |
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Progfan97402
Prog Reviewer Joined: March 12 2010 Location: Oregon Status: Offline Points: 93 |
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Posted: December 29 2023 at 23:13 |
Lisa Bella Donna was in the psych/prog/stoner rock combo EYE out of Columbus, Ohio. Their final album was Vision and Ageless Light, released on The Laser's Edge with some truly outstanding keyboard work. Apparently, EYE is no more, according to what Ken Golden of The Laser's Edge said on Pete Pardo's Sea of Tranquility YouTube channel. Lisa has since pursued a vastly prolific solo career with many recording in the Progressive Electronic vein, many of them in the Berlin School style. Sure, some recordings are not in the vein, or even fall in the PE vein, but a good portion of it does, and deserves to be in PA. She is a total gear freak, as you'll see if you see her on various YouTube videos. She uses tons of authentic vintage gear, including a genuine Mellotron, plus new analog gear as well. There is too much to check out but do check out her Bandcamp page. Her 2019 release Circulus is a wonderful album for fans of Berlin School. That Mellotron passage that starts "Kanawha Falls, West Virginia" is to die for. Tons of sequencers (making me think of TD's Ricochet) and it ends with windchimes. Here's that album:
Endless Roads is very ambitious, would be a triple album had it been released on vinyl, parts of it are rather abstract. I hadn't heard everything she's done, but at her best it's truly amazing stuff.
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Gordy
Special Collaborator Folk/Eclectic/PSIKE/Metal/Post/Math Team Joined: January 25 2007 Location: US Status: Online Points: 4026 |
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She's a local legend, and I saw her a couple times in EYE and her prior group Deadsea. I think she lives in West Virginia now.
If you could tweak your original post into a workable biography as per the Artist Submission Guidelines, I'll then take her to the team. |
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yam yam
Collaborator Crossover Team Joined: June 16 2011 Location: Kerberos Status: Offline Points: 6358 |
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Wow, what an incredible lady! Have a read of this really detailed interview to get an idea of her life in music: https://headphonecommute.com/2023/12/20/in-the-studio-with-lisa-bella-donna/.
And for a tour of her home studio deep in the Appalachian mountains of the eastern United States see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8vf99skSCU.
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Progfan97402
Prog Reviewer Joined: March 12 2010 Location: Oregon Status: Offline Points: 93 |
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It does seem that Lisa is currently living in West Virginia. From what I've seen from interviews, she was originally from that state and grew up there. She moved back to WV because she liked the serene environment that she gets there that she didn't get in an urban environment in Ohio.
Anyways, I am in the middle of getting more familiar with her recorded output, outside her works with EYE, and a couple of solo electronic recordings she made. Each release seems quite different, she's done Berlin School, as mentioned before, avant garde electronic, ambient, strange combination of Appalachian style music with electronic, and the occasional venture outside electronic, such as jazz/fusion. What really blows me away is the incredible detail she goes into talking about her gear, which I've seen on YouTube videos. I really love those big analog synth tones she creates from those keyboards. I know if I was confronted with the gear she has and I play with the knobs, I'd only make them go haywire and make unpleasant noise, but Lisa can master these intimidating synths. I remembered when I first heard "Book of the Dead" from EYE's final release Vision of Ageless Light, I noticed a short, but Berlin School-like piece that kickstarts the album. I was wishing she'd record some solo material in the Berlin School vein, and I got my wish. Unfortunately, I live in Oregon and little chance she'll be heading to Eugene, near where I live. If she did, I'd be attending and having my mind blown. Seeing her gear is a site to behold!
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Gordy
Special Collaborator Folk/Eclectic/PSIKE/Metal/Post/Math Team Joined: January 25 2007 Location: US Status: Online Points: 4026 |
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