MAI (music)

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MAI:Johanna Wedin, Dorian Dumont, Still need a kiss

MAI
Also known as	Johanna Wedin
Origin	Sweden, France
Genre(s)	Folk Pop Electro Ambiance
Years active	2005 => now
Label(s)	Nacopajaz www.nacopajaz.fr
Website	www.whoismai.com www.myspace.com/ilovemai

1 MAI (music)
2 External links

[edit] MAI (music)

MAI is a group between folk, pop & electro. MAI is before anything Johanna Wedin's solo act. Johanna is from the North of Sweden and livs for the moment in Paris.

[edit] Biography:

[edit] MAI’s music:

Graceful and riveting, dreamy and sensuous, MAI's music is an invitation to the mesmerizing musical world drawn by Johanna Wedin, with the help of a few like-minded artists such as Dorian Dumont (from the French London-based band The Teenagers) and Bardi Johannsson of Lady and Bird's and Bang Gang's fame. Johanna and Dorian both took songwriting duties, blending Johanna’s love for dreamy though slightly tormented soundscapes and Dorian’s pop leanings, interweaving folk and organic influences as can be heard on songs like Travelling Light with dreampop, meanwhile giving Johanna the opportunity to let her wonderful lush voice shine through the songs. MAI started making themselves a name and attracting a deserved attention when Les Inrockuptibles, a prestigious and widely-read French music magazine, picked them out as one of the best unsigned bands in France, and featured one of their songs, “En fait”, on their 2005 “CQFD” compilation. From that moment, things started building up steam, as Johanna signed a record deal with French label Nacopajaz. Backed up by the label, the band got more and more positive response from professionals and the audience alike : Johanna issued a critically-acclaimed 7’’ entitled Snowing Downtown, which has earned MAI comparisons to both Julee Cruise and Mazzy Star, and MAI’s live performances, including opening acts for such bands as Grizzly Bear and Okkervil River, make for an intense and emotional experience. Having put under the spell of her sensual voice producers and musicians, she records her first LP Still need a kiss, giving vent at last to her fragile side, letting go of her long pent-up feelings, turning the record into a deeply personal and spell-binding world, shaped with the help of Dorian Dumont who features as a guest singer on three songs, and Bardi Johannsson who produces two tracks. Fred Fortuny (of Autour de Lucie and Brisa Roche’s fame) also contributed to two songs, Silly and En fait, becoming in the process a core member of MAI today. Last but not least, Travelling Light and You're lovely but I'm gone were recorded by the Kouz brothers, a pair of highly-regarded producers and sound designers whose works include for example the critically-acclaimed soundtrack to French animated movie Renaissance. The record, mixed by Stephane "Alf" Briat, who produced Air's The Virgin Suicides and Sébastien Tellier, was issued in France in June 2007, and got very positive reviews from the press. Still need a kiss cannot but enthrall the listener and suspend him in a luscious, sensual and slightly melancholy mood, making him relish the opportunity to linger on, spell-bound, in MAI's hautingly delicate universe.

[edit] Johanna Wedin:

Johanna is a leader of MAI’s band. Hailing from a small seaside place in the North of Sweden, Johanna comes from a music-loving family which proved quite influential in her picking up both the piano and the saxophone. she grew up listening to a variety of musical genres, ranging from jazz music to punk rock, and developed very early a taste for singing which became more poignant (and more pregnant) as she started attending the local music scene in Stockholm as a teenager, hanging out in clubs where she watched friends perform. Always the perfectionist, Johanna perfected her singing technique by learning lyrical art before leaving Sweden. After a brief stay in Paris, she moved to New York to carry on studying music and art. Some months later, on her return to Paris in 2003, Johanna made the acquaintance of French musician (The Teenagers) and then music journalist (Liability) Dorian Dumont. Out of a mutual love for such Icelandic acts as Múm and Sigur Rós, and a mutual willingness to write songs in the same mood, they both started working and collaborating on what was to become MAI's first LP.

[edit] Still need a kiss:

New album is out now, the solo project of Johanna Wedin ( SW ) reveals a beautiful world between aerian folk, deserted electronic landscapes surrounded all along by a haunting sensual voice. Johanna performs the songs on this first album gracefully and sincerely. The spacy pop melodies enhance MAI’s invitation to melancholy and dreams. MAI recorded the album in different studio configurations inviting Bardi Johannsson (Bang Gang-Lady & Bird), Dorian Dumont (The Teenagers) Frédéric Fortuny (Brisa Roche) at production. The album entitled “Still Need A Kiss” Mixed by Stéphane “Alf” Briat (Phoenix-Air-Autour de lucie...) will surely transport you into a luscious and delicate world where you will feel the icy breath of Scandinavian wilderness.