LONELY DRIFTER KAREN "P O L E S"

ABOUT:

It has been two years since their last release and now LONELY DRIFTER KAREN are back, stronger than ever before, with a new song cycle which shatters many preconceived notions of their music. The colours have morphed: analog electronics, Asiatic arpeggios, sliding bass-synths, sinuous guitar riffs and funky grooves abound, while Tanja Frinta's voice is wilder, more vibrant than it ever was, and seems to have acquired unsuspected new dimensions.

With these new shades and brushes, the band have painted an alternate version of their own, unmistakable world: dreamy, poetic, and slightly surreal, overflowing with those lush arrangements and irresistible melodies which have become the band's trademark.

The core duet of the group — Austrian singer/guitarist Tanja Frinta & Spanish keyboardist/arranger Marc Melià Sobrevias — are now firmly relocated in Brussels, Belgium. Following the amicable departure of their long time drummer, they have enlisted the help of young French guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Clément Marion, and of several percussionists (both of the human and the machine kind) to launch into sound explorations and create these songs which take the listener on an enticing journey through sound & space, to the outer reaches of LDK's universe.

Aside from the birth of this formidable new album, 2011 also saw LDK's first foray into China (with a successful 10-date tour), and the use of their music in a growing number of films and commercials around Europe.


PRESS:

Musical overhaul propels Belgium-based trio to unexpected heights.
The graceful Poles is a pop album of the very highest calibre.
As the album unfolds, Lonely Drifter Karen reveal a new fondness for French pop of the Sixties, south-east Asian melodies……Martha and the Muffins… John Barry … Lykke Li...
Poles is seamless, every seemingly effortless song a perfect, melodic, atmospheric gem. But Tanja Frinta's beautiful, Karen Carpenter-esque voice is the focus.
This is a landmark album. The year is still young, but Poles is one 2012's best.
- The Arts Desk (UK)

[They] have moved beyond mostly acoustic, piano-driven pieces, adding notes of wistful, 60s Gallic pop, funky, Luscious Jackson-style grooves, loungey, retro-futurist electronica and, on 'Comet', Nu Shooz-like '80s synth pop. All up, it's irresistible; mix yourself a cocktail and settle back. 4 stars.
- Time Out (UK)

The trans-European trio serve up a more synthy, streamlined set of brooding but punchy interplanetary dream pop. Bolder, colder and brushed in chrome, Poles is the sound of a band finding their stride, hitting their straps and reaching new heights.
Frinta finds mantras to chant in many of the songs, every echo sustaining the spell.
For all the rallying chants, however, it is swirling, mercurial instrumental patterns that create the album's vortexes. The abundance of stylish gloss, eerie allure and ever-chanted refrains create a stylistically cohesive, colourful maelstrom
- The Line of Best Fit (UK)

We are sincerely in love with the cosmic reveries of this Brussels-based trio, who mix Les Baxter/Esquivel-style space-age pop with the woozy grind of real guitars. Singer Tanja Frinta is quite something to hear — an intergalactic Charlotte Gainsbourg
- The Word (UK)

… the incredibly versatile singing voice of Tanja Frinta (…) can sound serene like Feist or Lykke Li, dark and melancholic like Nancy Sinatra or Lana del Rey or even slightly mad like tUnE-yArDs or Róisín Murphy. What makes (this) all the more admirable and pleasing is that Frinta never actually sounds like any of the aforementioned female singers. The styles change without losing of the character of her voice. The German twist to certain vowels only adds to the personality of it.
Lonely Drifter Karen manage to mould their many-sidedness into instantly accessible song shapes. The level of songwriting is persistently high, echoing the unbounded craftmanship of Moloko, Beach House and Wir Sind Helden.
Poles is one of the most interesting releases of the first quarter of 2012.
- Indie Fuzz (NL)