Ana Patan’s album „Spice, Gold and Tales Untold” is finally out!
Ana Patan is a German independent musician, of Romanian descends, currently based in Sweden. She’s a singer/songwriter, her instrument of choice is electric guitar and her music is everything from bluesy, world-influenced or funky to jazzy, grungy alternative and even progressive rock.
Patan’s music career seems to be about mixing impressions and crossing borders, geographically and stylistically. Born and raised in (back-then dictatorial) Romania, in a whirlwind of national folklore and strong influences from both Western Europe and the Orient, as well as Great Britain and the United States, Patan picked up the guitar in her early teens and out came her own interpretation of the world, in daring sounds and persuasive lyrics. That won Patan the first prize in a national music competition, followed by top-level stage performances and media coverage. She went on to study music theory and guitar in Germany – Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, experience completed by tons of live playing, with her own music projects and in bands of the most diverse genres, from punk to metal or jazz. For a while Patan endorsed Hohner, playing – amongst other special electric guitars – a prototype they had made for Prince.
What contributed most to her artistry was the music-traveling around the world, getting to meet, and often play alongside of some of the planet’s most amazing musicians.
In her latest album „Spice, Gold and Tales Untold” (https://anapatan.bandcamp.com), Patan’s singing and guitar playing is joined and supported by none less than Jonas Hellborg on bass (who has also played a vital role as the musical and technical advisor on this no-compromise, old-school record) and Zoltan Csörsz on drums. Contributing their talent to this production were also Jonathan Herrera, Jamal Evans, and, least but not last, Devin Townsend!
The self-produced project lasted around ten years, with the composing and arranging of around one hundred songs, that went on being rehearsed and demoed, played live in countless concerts, while the necessary equipment was being put together, from guitar, strings, pickups, amps and pedals to cables and recording machines, eventually modified or even built anew for that envisioned sound concept. What took Ana the longest was to find the right co-musicians, who would resonate on a human and musical level, as well as practicing for the skill and feeling necessary to record the perfect take directly on tape, a process quite unfamiliar to the newer generations of musicians.
The recording was done at the Bardo Music Studios (who since its beginnings in the ’80 has been guesting artists like Youssou Ndour, Ginger Baker, Bernie Worrell, Public Enemy, etc.) in the classical analog way, on 2 inch tape (Studer A 800 machine, with old Neumann microphones) without a metronome and almost no EQ or compression. The arrangements are limited to drums, bass, guitar, and vocal, in the classical power-trio formula, and each instrument takes its time and space in a very lively and natural general sound, while making sure to let the Song and its Message take center stage and shine.
The 10 numbers that finally made it on the album are hymns to the simple pleasures of every day life, holding a mirror to individual and humanity with all their faults and splendour, loving, laughing, denouncing, discovering, and of course worshipping cats! (The very album title is the description of the looks and colors in the eyes of goddess Cat, as praised in the first song, „Undeciphered”).
The album was launched on Bandcamp on 10. February 2021 (https://anapatan.bandcamp.com/) and it will also come out as a CD and on Vinyl, as well as digitally all over the net.
There was an online concert performing it live from Sweden recently, in a trio formula, uploaded on Patan’s YouTube channel
