专辑简介

How do you create music with another musician when you live on opposite sides of the globe? Australian singer Melissa Forbes and Brazilian guitarist Bianca Obino have transformed the tyranny of that distance into an intimate experience on their EP “The Intimacy of Distance” released on 25 September. The digital-only release is quiet testimony to the resilience of the relationship between the two musicians. Bianca and Melissa met at a singing course in the US in 2011, and immediately struck up a friendship. When they performed Bianca’s arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” to a rapturous reception from a room full of some of the world’s best singing teachers, they knew they were on to something. “I really loved how Bianca was able to capture the essence of that song with only one guitar,” said Melissa. “When she later contacted me from Brazil offering to arrange some of my songs, I leapt at the chance.” The two collaborated for a couple of years over Skype and email, eventually also writing some material together. The result is “The Intimacy of Distance”, which contains a mix of Bianca’s arrangements of some well-known songs and original material. “The covers have been taken so far out of their original context that I think they take on a different life,” explained Bianca. “We’ve included ‘Beautiful’ by Christina Aguilera and ‘Overkill’ by Colin Hay. I really wanted to include an Australian song on the EP.” “We also do a beautiful slow bossa nova by Mark Sholtez, who engineered and produced the recording,” added Melissa. Both Bianca and Melissa hope that listeners will feel as if they are in the room with the pair, sharing an intimate live performance, despite the distance in both time and space which actually exists between listener and recording. “I’m very proud of how pure and fundamental this record is. We have only guitar and voice. We really wanted to strip things down to their essence, and I think we’ve achieved that,” Melissa said.