Artist description Beautiful and dreamy soundscapes with lyrical depth.

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Artist History Lara Michell grew up in the southern Oregon town of Roseburg where she studied classical piano and music theory beginning at age 7. Citing her formal piano training as a major influence on her current musical sensibilities, she expresses a deep affection for the Baroque intricacy of Bach's two- and three-part inventions and the dark beauty of Chopin's Nocturnes. Lara began taking classical guitar lessons from Professor John Doan during her second year of college at Willamette University and continued in the classical vein for about a year and a half while teaching herself some basic folk and rock guitar chords and picking patterns. She played a few shows at the college café during this period. After graduating from college, she joined the Peace Corps and went to The Gambia, West Africa, where she served as a math teacher in a secondary school in a large village called Bansang. After her Peace Corps service, Lara finally began writing her own songs, just a few weeks before being contacted by three women who had decided to form a band that would later become Carmina Piranha. They were seeking an additional guitarist and had been given Lara's name by mutual friends. Lara joined the band as a guitarist and back-up vocalist and continued to write her own songs which were usually separate from the highly collaborative Carmina Piranha material, where Lara's affinity for classical guitar is evident in the band's flamenco-inspired signature sound. A natural multi-tasker, Lara began law school at Lewis & Clark College in August of 1996. When Carmina Piranha took a few months off in the summer of 1997, Lara decided to make a solo album of her original songs. Tide Pool, the resulting collection of her uniquely intricate and eerie compositions, was released in late 1997 to unanimous critical acclaim in and around the Portland area (see PRESS). Exposure from the release of Tide Pool led to invitations to contribute songs to the MORE and DEEP ROOTS compilations in 1998 and 1999, respectively (see RECORDINGS), as well as invitations to participate in various songwriters-in-the-round shows with other local artists. All the while, Carmina Piranha was gaining momentum and preparing for a collaborative project with the respected Oregon Ballet Theatre for which they would compose and perform an original soundtrack to a ballet choreographed by OBT Artistic Director James Canfield. The band released this soundtrack, titled Revenge Poems, in conjunction with six live performances of the ballet at Portland's Civic Auditorium in April of 1998. Lara is currently recording her second full-length solo album, tentatively titled Somniloquy, due out later this year. Listeners should expect a sequence of dark, mysterious songs characterized by her intricately detailed guitar playing, inlaid with impressionistic lyrics and delivered in her warm, ethereal voice. Lara continues to perform throughout the northwest as a solo artist and with Carmina Piranha. She has performed at the NxNW Annual Music Festival and the Oregon Folklife Festival, and recently began lending her musical support to friend Sattie Clark as part of the "Sattie Clark 3". Lara lives with her husband in SE Portland and is also a general practice attorney at William Lewis & Associates, P.C.

Albums Tide Pool, Somniloquy

Press Reviews "Though best known for her role as guitarist/co-vocalist for Carmina Piranha, Lara Michell is an amazing artist in her own right. Her elliptical tales have the feeling of lucid dreams that beg to be revisited, and her voice is full of experienced innocence and fragile strength." -- Willamette Week, September 2000*** "(Lara Michell) slowly shifts her soundscapes, as if she were giving a tour of an abandoned house that has many rooms, each with its own eerie history." -- Programming Magazine, National Association of Campus Activities, April 2000*** "Though best known as one of the Carmina Piranha collection, Lara Michell is a class act all on her own. Her solo album, Tide Pool, is a stunning collection of slightly skewed scenes, all sung in Michell's soft, seductive style." -- Willamette Week, June 14, 2000*** "(Lara Michell's) enchanting solo material is one of P-Town's best-kept secrets. Equal parts ethereal beauty, guitar wizardry, and good ol' fashioned songsmithery form the chemical make-up of (her) music. Lightly dose with some sparkly stage presence, and you have a genuinely engaging performer." -- Mercury Magazine, June 8-14, 2000*** "[Michell's] songs are deceptively intricate and driven by her frenzied strum as she sings in lovely, mysterious mood spirals of rapture, accusation and introspection. A quiet storm of sneaky splendors." Rocket, August 1998*** "From the watercolor cover (by Michell's sister, Jillanne) through the clear production to the well-tendered precious musical boxes inside, [Lara Michell's] Tide Pool is a thing of bountiful beauty and after a bit of a local dry spell, this disc is one long luxurious drink. Gulp it down." Anodyne, February 1998*** "Lara Michell, Carmina Piranha's acoustic guitar princess, carved another nifty notch in her 'flying solo' belt. Her soothing plucking and curiously weighted whisper cast a spell upon all." Rocket, August 1998*** "The sweet and shy vocals and acoustic guitar belie the spooky intricacies of Ms. Michell's words and music." Willamette Week, August 1998*** "Carmina Piranha guitarist Lara Michell has crafted one of the most intelligent and emotionally affecting albums in years. Most of the songs are buoyed by melodic acoustic and ambient electric guitars that dance around one another, creating an infectious swath of sound..." Rocket, September 1998***

Location Portland, Oregon - USA

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