January 24, 2005 -- City Canyons Records announces with great pleasure its newly signed agreement with the Netherlands's independent label, Music & Words to release and distribute
Peter Ulrich's new album "Enter the Mysterium" throughout the United States and Europe. Release is set for March 1 in the United States.
Hans Peters, co-president of Music & Words remarked "I am looking forward to the joint effort with City Canyons, one of America's rising new indie labels, to further the music of one
of the most creative and original recording artists on today's music scene through this international release".
Music & Words celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2005 having released more than 160 albums specializing in roots based music including musical areas like folk and Celtic, blues,
Cajun, klezmer, African, Caribbean and Asian music ranging in musical style from ethnic to rock. While newcomer City Canyons Records has released three albums, Jen Elliott and
Bluestruck's "The Secret's Out", Finnish group Valerian's "Intimations of Sorrow" and UK rocker David Steele's "Underneath the Ice", the U.S. indie label has definitely become a presence
on the international music scene with its upcoming release with Music & Words of "Enter the Mysterium".
Prior to "Enter the Mysterium", Peter Ulrich was perhaps best known for his long-time collaboration with Dead Can Dance, the fabulously creative band of the eighties that explored new
frontiers of music exploring world, folk, darkwave and a wealth of other forms. Ulrich joined the group in 1983 and appeared on albums like "Garden of Arcane Delights", "Within the Realm
of a Dying Sun" and "Spiritchaser," and was a touring member of the group until 1990.
Ulrich also collaborated on Ivo Watts-Russell's "This Mortal Coil" project, contributing the song "At First, And Then" to Filigree And Shadow, and also played on the legendary label 4AD
with labelmates Michael Brook and the Wolfgang Press as an incidental percussionist. Ulrich's "Pathways & Dawns", released on Projekt Records in 1999, featured former Dead Can Dance
bandmate Brendan Perry as a producer and arranger. Delighted reviewers of "Pathways & Dawns" compared Ulrich's work to medieval madrigals, baroque exotica, Todd Rundgren and Brian Eno
all in the same sentence, a tribute to the infinite variety of Ulrich's music.
"Enter the Mysterium" is similarly diverse but with brilliant pop influences that should cause it, while losing none of its stunning originality, to appeal to a broader audience.
Mysterium features words and music by Ulrich, vocals by Ulrich and Ulrich playing both traditional instruments and a selection of exotic instruments from all over the world.
Ulrich's music in Mysterium recalls Dead Can Dance but has an exotic flavor of its own, blending seamlessly an array of musical genres--art pop, dream-pop, ancient and medieval music, new
age, world and ethnic music and darkwave -- into a lush tapestry. But words cannot explain that music to understand it, you must enter Ulrich's world of light and shadow, a world of black
and white magic, a world haunting, mysterious, sometimes frightening but in the end uplifting--a world powerfully mapped out in Ulrich's new album.
As an added treat, particularly for those who have tired of the pabulum that passes for music on commercial radio, the release of "Enter the Mysterium" coincides with the reuniting of
Dead Can Dance for a world tour this spring. Surely the rebirth of creative, risk-taking new music will be as refreshing and warming to some music-lovers' hearts as that first spring
flower poking through the frost.
For more information on "Enter the Mysterium", including advance copies of the CD for review, full press kits with photographs and opportunities for interviews, please contact Katherine
Brodsky, Random Minds, PR, 604-725-5449 or e-mail e-mail protected from spam bots. The City Canyons Records website may be
visited at www.citycanyons.com.
The Music & Words website may be visited at http://www.musicwords.nl. Distribution opportunities outside the U.S. and Europe are presently
available for "Enter the Mysterium".