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Interview with Luka Bloom on video
> FaceCulture Online Magazine - 15 May 2007

22-06-2007 - Radio 1 :: Luka goes electric
Interview with Luka Bloom by Wouter Mattelin
multiblog.vrt.be/exitplus/luka-goes-electric

July 22-23, 2007: Luka Bloom
Read his XXQs to find out more >>

The interview is available as a podcast and you can download it from their website
www.beat102103.com/beat-podcasting/irish-beats/interview-with-luka-bloom.html
www.beat102103.com

release dates in other territories:
Holland and Belgium on June 18 with V2 Records
Germany, Austria and Switzerland on June 22 with Skip Records
USA on July 31 with Cooking Vinyl USA
Ireland on September 7 with Big Sky Records
and UK on September 10 with Proper Music Distribution

Luka Bloom - Innocence
Cooking Vinyl

When something happens that threatens to end your musical career, it leaves the soul questioning life's purpose. But when you struggle through that hard time, recording one of your finest and most tender records in the meantime, and then make a full recovery, there is only one thing to do: celebrate! Luka Bloom seems to be celebrating his re-emergence to full health on his newest record, Innocence. All the doubts and introspection on last year's Before Sleep Comes have come full circle to end in a brilliant commemoration of life and rebirth on Innocence.

'Primavera' begins the album with an eloquent foreshadowing of the themes to come, which rolls nicely into the lilting softness of 'First Light Of Spring'. These two songs set the tone for the entire album, building on the tender benevolence of the songs on Before Sleep Comes and fleshing out the ideas of a wondrous resurrection of the world from the sleep of winter.

By the time 'Innocence' begins, there is a low, mellow mood already built that makes the soul wholly receptive for the insidious splendor of Luka's lyrical genius. "I remember the taste / of the first kiss by the river / and the promises we'd keep / forever and ever... and I choose innocence / after my tears."

'June' is another fine example of the rebirth theme that weaves its way throughout this album with such a delicate and deliberate feel, bringing to light the true feeling of joy that Luka seems to have found in his ability to once more play music as he'd like. And dig the groovy Van Morrison-esque feel that the song gives off - an instant classic.

Alternately, Innocence is interspersed with some darker and more pressing themes, as well. 'No Matter Where You Go, There You Are' deals with the story of a man outcast from his own land and how he finally comes to find some happiness in the sorrow of a foreign land and its music. 'Miracle Cure' finds the songwriter entreating the world to step back and realize the most direct path to happiness and peace is simply forgiving those that trespass against us. Luka has finally found time to record his classic 'City Of Chicago' on Innocence. After many years of hearing Christy Moore playing the song, it is a simple joy to hear it from the mouth of the man who wrote it. And the highly personally political 'I Am Not At War' makes a strong statement that the world's leaders would be well advised to stop and think about themselves.

But ultimately, everything comes back to the simple happiness that Luka obviously finds in music and the world around him. And nowhere is this displayed more prominently than on the amazingly complex 'Gypsy Music'. There is a wondrous amount of joy that inexplicably fills the yearning of Luka's voice and his rhythmic guitar strumming. But the apex of Innocence's beauty lies in the amazing depth of the wonderful 'Thank You For Bringing Me Here'. This song, possibly more than any other of his career, accurately captures Luka's ability to flesh out a simple observation into one of his most heartrending and magnificent songs. The lyrics have an almost sing-songy feel, but a depth and power that belie their simple pronouncement.

Innocence is far more than simply a ray of hope and celebratory joy in the life of Luka Bloom. This brilliant collection of songs transcends all of his earlier works, and simply lays out for the world why Luka is truly one of the world's finest songwriters, now or ever.

David DeVoe
www.hybridmagazine.com

05-05-2006 - Info from Koch Entertainment, USA

LUKA BLOOM - INNOCENCE

Three tracks from Luka Bloom's latest album 'Innocence' have been picked to be a part of Starbucks' in-store play beginning this month! > www.starbucks.com

13-10-2005 - Info from Skip Records, Germany

LUKA BLOOM - INNOCENCE - 180 g Vinyl Limited Edition
In time for the German and Swiss tour dates in November SKIP RECORDS will continue its collection of 180 g vinyl limited editions of Luka Bloom, this time his latest album "Innocence". Collectors have to hurry up, as the edition is strictly limited to 1000 pieces. The vinyls are available in good record shops, on tour in Germany and Switzerland and of course directly at our website: > www.skiprecords.com

04-10-2005 - Info from Lukabloom.com

INNOCENCE will be released in America on Cooking Vinyl Records March 21st 2006 with 2 bonus tracks!

Product information:
Innocence seems like a strange title for Luka Bloom's tenth studio album. However, Innocence is an album that could easily be mistaken as an accomplished debut. Bloom's lyrics are so insightful and fresh that you'd be forgiven for mistaking him as a young and disillusioned twenty-something, instead of a 50 year old who has been making music for 36 years. Musically, Innocence is just as simple and static. There's an unrivalled tenderness to Luka Bloom's enchanting, earnest songwriting - his musical and lyrical delivery possesses that special charm. His deft, delicate touch on the six-string and distinguishable Irish lilt in his honeyed vocals draws you in immediately with the heartfelt opener 'Primavera', from which the ensuing mood is set. And of course, there's a gentle dose of mellow instrumentals on Innocence to round out the album.

The US version contains two exclusive bonus tracks that are not on the UK version - 'Doing The Best I Can' and 'I Am Not At War With Anyone'. Bloom seems to always manage a sense of freshness with anything he puts his mind, voice and hand to, and Innocence beautifully captures the emotions of these purposeful messages by a master of his game.

www.kochdistribution.com

Galway Advertiser - Entertainment - Thursday 26 May 2005

Changing houses works wonders for Luka Bloom
By KERNAN ANDREWS

Moving to America gave Luka Bloom the confidence to find his own musical voice. Moving to a new house in Kildare has helped him write the best albums of his career. The reason? "I'm allergic to nostalgia," he says.

..."I think I have been a late developer," Luka says modestly, though he admits his most recent work is among his strongest. "Something has shaken in me in the last two years. I decided to simplify the guitar and focus on the lyrics and get across what it is that really motivates me and moves me. I'm going to attribute some of that to the house I live in now in Co Kildare on the outskirts of the Bog of Allen."

How did moving house affect his work? "It's a practical thing of being able to write something without disturbing other people," he says. "I lived for 27 years in city centres and in an apartment there would be people on the other side of every wall and it was difficult to do your work without upsetting someone. When I lived in Dublin I would rent a cottage in the Burren and work there for four weeks on the songs but I don't have to do that anymore. Now I can go to the Burren and visit friends and relax. I can now do my work where I live and that has made a big impact and I feel there is a freshness to my work."

It is appropriate perhaps that the intimate surroundings of home and the familiarity of the Kildare countryside is where Innocence was recorded. It's an album that celebrates the joy of simple pleasures - a celebration of how the ordinary in life has a special quality that can be more meaningful than the seemingly 'important' events.

"I would regard that as a perfect analysis of what drives me and motivates me," Luka replies. "Writing songs for me is about making the ordinary extraordinary. People live such fast, materialistic lives that we lose touch with the essential magic of the ordinary..... I don't believe music can change the world in a global sense," says Luka, "but I absolutely believe it can transform an individual life and can articulate our experiences, sorrows, joys and I think that is the challenge of this particular songwriter."

The most challenging song on Innocence, and perhaps the finest Luka has ever written, is the north African flavoured 'No Matter Where You Go, There You Are' - recounting the tale of a Muslim who, exiled from Algeria, makes his home in Galway. What led Luka to write this song?

"On the album that song is beside 'City Of Chicago' and that's deliberate," Luka replies. "'City Of Chicago' articulates some of the hurt and isolation people who left Ireland and emigrated to Boston, Chicago, and London felt. Now we've gone from that situation to the reverse where people are coming to Ireland in search of the same life we sought.

I wanted to write a personal song, a positive song, not an anti-Conor Lenihan song. I wanted to highlight the talent and resources emigrants bring and I used as an example a friend of mine from Algeria called Mohamed. He now lives in northern Holland. He doesn't live in Galway but he has been to Galway. I used his experience for coming to Europe as background for the story I wanted to tell of him making his way from Algeria to Galway and it's a song I like to sing in Galway."

www.galwayadvertiser.ie

Hybrid Magazine - music reviews - April 2005

Luka Bloom
Before Sleep Comes
Bar None Records

Adversity can sometimes lead to great changes and personal growth. Before Sleep Comes is definitely such a case. Luka Bloom was having a bout of severe tendonitis and couldn't play his normal steel string acoustics. So, being the ingenious Irishman that he is, he picked up his nylon string and started playing away, delving into the soft sounds that are inherent to that instrument. Upon realizing how much fun he was having exploring this tender, quieter style of songs, he decided he would gift the public with a record of the songs. Over the course of a few cold and windy nights, Luka sat at Old Mill Studios and set the tunes to tape, just him and his nylon string guitar. Thus was born Before Sleep Comes.

Celtic Connection - CD Reviews - April 2004

BEFORE SLEEP COMES - LUKA BLOOM
Big Sky Records

SWEET DREAMS

As a child, who didn't love being snuggled in bed with a loved one to sing you to sleep? The delicious feeling of hanging on the cusp of sleep until the music carried you over. As adults, we now have a champion of insomniacs everywhere in Luka Bloom and his latest release, 'Before Sleep Comes'. While most performers would be offended if someone fell asleep listening to their music, Bloom expects you to!

Frets Magazine - The complete acoustic guitar package - Fall 2004