Movie news - Random Acts of Romance

We are pleased to announce the inclusion of two Boutique Empire artists on the soundtrack of a new locally shot comedy called Random Acts of Romance.

Over the past summer we were approached about licensing songs for a new independent film shot here in Vancouver.  The trailer below looks great and features the Sex With Strangers song "We Want the Fire."  Another song, "Dancefloor" by Guilty About Girls is also included in the movie, apparently it is used prominently during the closing scene and credits.

From the few moments I've seen everything looks really good, and I can say we're all quite looking forward to catching its premiere in October.

Thanks again to everyone involved, you've been great people to meet and we wish you the greatest success with your motion picture!

Check it out!

Isabelle Dunlop fall fashions

Sept 22nd/23rd  

Isabelle Dunlop will be having her fall collection on display at Main St., Vancouver.  She has a wide selection of coloured wool shawls and scarves as well as her brand new pea coat made from Buffalo check plaid wool (as featured in the Georgia Straight last week).  

In addition to the pea coat Isabelle has several new colours of scarves and shawls, the wool freshly arrived from the Shetland isles of Scotland.

The pop up shop will be happening at the former Birkeland Brothers Wool shop at 3573 Main street,  near the corner of Main and 20th Avenue. Special thanks again to Cara Birkeland for offering her site for the sale.

Hours:

Saturday Sept 22nd 12-8 PM

Sunday Sept 23rd 12-6

Cash or cheque only. 

Hidden Treasures: Gilles Zolty "Horny Astronaut"

Gilles Zolty - Horny Astronaut

A while back, and I mean over a decade now, I had the pleasure of working on a fantastic album by Gilles Zolty, his end of the millenium opus Horny Astronaut.  Gilles had approached me to do a little mastering on his home recorded album.   We spent a few hours working on things and in the end I gave it my best shot but really thought there was a great deal of potential that was being missed in the mixes.   Gilles walked away that afternoon with a new cd-r and a few things to think about.

Over the summer of 1999 we got to speaking and decided to attempt upgrading his sonics by leaving his home basement studio and going into Studio 55 in N. Vancouver, where I'd been working for a few years at that point.  The differences were quite noticeable and we were both rather pleased with the results.  I thought I'd finished my work and was later surprised to learn that Gilles had been in communication with an English producer named Paul Schroeder (Stone Roses, The Verve).  By late September we'd booked more studio time because Paul was flying over to help finish the album.  I confess I was a bit surprised by this latest news as I'd considered our work done.  However from the moment Paul stepped into the studio I discovered there was in fact a great many things to do!

We worked around the clock for two weeks straight.  The first week was spent on editing, arrangements, additional parts, re-recording bits, replacing vocals, tweaking keyboard parts, replaying basslines, adding guitar parts: essentially what everybody does in the course of making an album.  It was a hectic week of tracking but we achieved a tonne of things and felt extremely excited about the project by the end of our labours.

Next came another solid week of 15-20 hour days where we mixed 11 of the 12 songs on the album.  Paul and I ended up tag teaming on a couple of the mixes as we were running out of time before Paul had to return to the UK.  In the end we got it done, with Paul literally putting the final touches on a mix right before picking  up his bags and jumping in a cab taking him straight to the airport!  A brilliant couple of weeks for sure.

My memory is filled with the fun and enthusiasm that surrounded this album.   Both Gilles and Paul are outstanding people, the former a bold talent, the latter a fearless visionary.  I learned a great deal about art, music, recording, producing and simply being a better person from each of them.  Over the years I later went to the UK and worked with Paul on several different records for groups such as The Upper Room, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and My Red Cell amongst others.  Gilles moved to London for several years, where we met up and did more recordings, some of which appear on his follow up album "Gilles Zolty".

The sound of Horny Astronaut is a wonderful blend of the acoustic and the electronic, a folk noir sound, at once both primitive and ethereal.  The album never really got a full release, it came close on several occasions, but has remained a hidden treasure for years now.  Please have a listen, and if you enjoy it, grab a copy from his music site.

Mark Henning

Sun bleached and beautiful - "Paros"

Combine the Victorious has just completed their new video for the song Paros.  Shot during the hottest and brightest days of summer to emulate the heat and sunshine of the Greek islands, CtV has created a sun soaked clip for their latest love song.

enjoy



Video produced by Boutique Empire
directed by Isabelle Dunlop, edited by M R Henning
August 2012


Song written by Henning, Dunlop, Wild
Produced and performed by Combine the Victorious
recorded and mixed by MRH
Mastered by Clayton Worbeck

Drums: Simon Hunt
Guitars: Marc Wild
Vocals: Isabelle Dunlop
Vocals, keyboards, bass: Mark Roland Henning

August updates

Been a good summer here in Vancouver (well once it arrived of course).   Combine the Victorious had a marvelous show at Electric Owl at the end of July - undeniably their best one yet!  Sex With Strangers has just completed recording the tracks to their fifth album, this time with producer Adam "Wunderbro" Percy at the helm.  Jordy Birch has been recording new songs with Digory Smallz at his new studio, and Vince Tuckwood is well on his way into his fifth novel! 

Combine the Victorious performed their first headlining show of 2012 on July 27th in celebration of their latest single Paros.  Joined on stage by drummer Jim Berry, CtV performed all new material, most of which shall be included on their next EP release.  The still to be titled EP shall coincide with shows in Europe (scheduling is being done right now).   Additional details will be revealed as soon as they become available.

Sex With Strangers have broken new ground on their fifth studio album.  This time they have joined their creative forces with Adam Percy, who has provided the group with some exquisite remixes in the past.  Recording over the past weeks at the new Fader Master studio with Adam leading the sonic vision and engineer Paul Boerchler engineering.   The album is also scheduled for an Autumn 2012 release.


Jordy Birch has been busy writing a whole new batch of material this past year.  He's been teaming up with producer/engineer Digory Smalls (Joshua Hislop, Young Liars) and will be revealing his latest songs soon! 

Vince Tuckwood, author of Escalation and Karaoke Criminals, is well into writing his fifth novel (which he has not yet revealed to us!).   Judging from his posts things are flowing well and we should expect a sneak peak relatively soon!

A busy time with a lot of work being created.  This fall is going to be loaded with releases and events.  Looking forward to it! 

New Single - Paros - Combine the Victorious

We are pleased to announce Paros, a new single from Combine the Victorious: a sun drenched tune of long distance love, placed in the heart of the Greek islands.   It comes out on iTunes this Friday, July 27th, but you can hear it now on the Combine the Victorious band site.

Combine the Victorious is performing this Friday to celebrate the release of Paros at Electric Owl, here in Vancouver, July 27th 2012. 




(Henning, Dunlop, Wild)
Produced and performed by Combine the Victorious
recorded and mixed by MRH
Mastered by Clayton Worbeck
Artwork Rob Edmonds
original photography Janis

Drums: Simon Hunt
Guitar:Marc Wild
Vocals and other instruments: Mark Roland Henning
Vocals: Isabelle Dunlop

Live at Electric Owl

July 27th 2012 

The Electric Owl

Boutique Empire presents:

Combine the Victorious
Onelight 

Fuzzum

Combine the Victorious celebrates the release of the bandʼs new single and video “Paros” at the Electric Owl Social Club, July 27th, Vancouver Canada. This exceedingly stylish event will definitely include music and may encourage dancing. Sound good? Yes, we thought so too.

Creating a sound that resides somewhere between the heady waters of Chic and Portishead, Mark R Henning (formerly of Pure/Guilty About Girls) and Isabelle Dunlop (formerly of Sex With Strangers) are performing songs from their latest album (The Agreement). Come dance, say hello, or help spread the word of fun.

Sharing the bill will be friends to CtV, Onelight and Fuzzum, who are:

Onelight is singer Amy Usher and drummer Hamish Thomson (The Hermit/Big Tall Garden). With a shared love things folk, indie rock and ambient electronica, Amy and Hamishʼs music is emotionally rich with vocal harmonies and tripped out ambient textures. The blend of layered percussive beats and smooth vocals slinks around reference points embracing Morecheeba, Massive Attack and Beth Orton. Onelight is currently in the studio mixing their debut album with Howard Redekopp; planned release date set for September.

Fuzzum is a supersecret side project of Jordy Birch (lead singer of Pure/Guilty About Girls) and Lucas T Poth (Guilty About Girls). A more blissed out indie fuzz rock version than their other projects, Fuzzum is all about noisy pop/rock jams.

And there will also be DJ sets! Juice (Yoko Casionos) will hit the proverbial decks to perfect the evening of music, dancing, and levity.

Doors at 8PM - Early Show - begins at 8:30 sharp Tickets $10 at the door.

Electric Owl - 928 Main Street, Vancouver BC

Contact: info@boutiqueempire.com

poster design Robert Edmonds

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