TEAM RNS PRESENTS

ARTIST: Mary Fahl

TITLE: The Other Side Of Time

LABEL: Odyssey / Sony Classical

RIPPER: Team RNS

1hr 01min total- 88.5mb

RELEASE DATE: 2003-05-27
RIP DATE: 2003-04-07

01 The Great Unknown              4:42

04 Ben Aindi Habibi               4:07

07 Una Furtiva Lagrima            3:51
08 The Other Side Of Time         4:11

10 Annie, Roll Down Your Window   3:58

12 Kindness Can Be Cruel          4:18
13 Dream Of You                   3:45
14 The Dawning Of The Day         4:34

Fahl is already known to discriminating
listeners as the richly evocative voice
of October Project, whose two albums
earned her copious critical acclaim and
a loyal fan base.  The Other Side of
Time launches an exciting new phase in
Fahl's musical life, unveiling an
impressive songwriting talent as well as
an ability to seamlessly weave a broad
range of musical idioms into her own
distinctive, deeply personal sound.
That sound also lends a special
eloquence to the soundtrack of the new
Focus Features film The Guys, directed
by Jim Simpson and starring Sigourney
Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia.  For this
highly personal drama set just after
the World Trade Center attacks, Fahl
sings "The Dawning of the Day," a
traditional Irish melody, arranged by
composer Mychael Danna, for which she
has also written original lyrics that
echo the valor and humanity of New York
firefighters.  The Other Side of Time
will include another song, "Going Home"
which she sings on the soundtrack of
director Ron Maxwell's epic Civil War
drama Gods and Generals, a Warner Bros.
Release.  The singer wrote the song with
Glenn Patscha and Byron Isaacs.
Soundtrack recordings of both The Guys
and Gods and Generals are Sony Classical

"I wanted to make a record with a mature
sensibility," says Fahl, whose
unaffected manner belies the diva
image that her commanding voice and
stage presence might suggest.
The Other Side of Time complements Fahl's
vivid contralto with spacious
instrumental arrangements that match
her voice with an array of acoustic,
electronic and orchestral textures.  The
result is a soaring, sometimes exotic
sound that's both expansive and
intimate, ethereal and earthy.  Fahl's
emergence as a songwriter (she co-wrote
all but two of the album's thirteen
songs) yields rich results on such
bittersweet originals as "In the Great
Unknown," "Dream of You," "The Station"
and the sweeping "Going Home."  The
artist's diverse tastes are further
reflected in a personalized reading of
the Gaetano Donizetti aria "Una Furtiva
Lagrima" that strips away all traces
of melodrama to cut to the piece's
emotional core; and "Ben Aindi Habibi,"
a swirling, seductive piece adapted from
traditional jarchas, erotic poetry
written by Moorish women during 11th
and 12th centuries.
The Other Side of Time teams Fahl with a
formidable set of collaborators,
including Grammy-winning
producer/engineer Jeffrey Lesser, who
first worked with Fahl on her
independently released 2001 EP Lenses of
Contact and whose credits include work
with artists as diverse as Barbra
Streisand, Lou Reed and The Chieftains;
and renowned arranger John Lissauer,
revered for his work on many of Leonard
Cohen's seminal albums.  Fahl also
combines her compositional talents with
a variety of co-writers, including
Academy Award nominee Ramsey McLean,
known for his work with Harry Connick
Jr.; Bob Riley, leader of the
well-regarded alternative pop band Grace
Pool; and noted theater composer
Stephen Schwartz.  Also featured are a
roster of top-flight players, including
guitarists Oren Bloedow, Kevin Kuhn,
Glenn Alexander; bassists Tony Garnier,
Byron Isaacs and Mark Egan;
keyboardists Scott Healy, Glenn Patscha
and Henry Aronson; violinist Mark
O'Connor, drummer Shawn Pelton and
theremin player Pamelia Kurstin.
Fahl (who names Sarah Vaughn, Sandy
Denny and Nico amongst her favorite
singers) was born in Rockland County, New
York, and studied medieval literature at
Montreal's McGill University, where she
simultaneously pursued her interests
in music and acting.  "I've always had
a big voice and I'm very comfortable on
stage," she says, "but I've never had any
vocal or classical training-which may
have been a good thing in some ways.  I
didn't have to unlearn anything, and my
style of singing doesn't conform to any
rules except my own."
After college, Fahl gained valuable
performing experience during an
18-month stay in Europe, where she
found work singing jazz standards with
expatriate American musicians in clubs in
Holland.  Later, while studying acting
in New York, she met a group of
musicians with whom she co-founded
October Project.  The group signed with
Epic Records and released a pair of
well-received albums, 1993's October
Project and 1995's Falling Farther In.
Following the band's dissolution, Fahl
set out to build a solo career on her
own terms.  She recorded a demo that
became the four-song Lenses of Contact
on her own Roughmix label; that disc
also debuted The Other Side of Time
tracks "Raging Child," "Paolo" and
"Redemption."  She put together a
touring band and began performing live
shows for the first time under her own
name, and found that her fans hadn't
forgotten her.  All the while, she
continued to hone her rapidly evolving

"I had been writing for years," says
Fahl.  "I had notebooks full of ideas
for songs and a box full of cassettes with
melodies that I'd hummed into my tape
recorder, but I knew that I needed to
throw my work into the crucible, to
test myself."  Working with various
co-writers, she soon gained confidence
in her songwriting.  "In terms of my
music, I've probably been most
influenced by European writers like
Jacques Brel and Michel Legrand.  At the
same time, I definitely have my roots in
American pop-Tom Petty, for instance.
I've always loved the lean, direct way
he builds his songs to these really
dramatic, emotionally satisfying

"It took me awhile to identify what kind
of solo artist I wanted to be," Fahl
continues.  "The more I wrote and sang
what I loved without thinking where it
would 'fit' into current trends, the
closer I came to discovering what made
me unique.  By the time I signed with
Sony, I had been incorporating all
kinds of classical material into my
live shows and my writing had grown
more, well, I guess you could say
'cinematic.'"  Her live audiences were
enthusiastic about this new turn and so
was her new label.  "It was incredibly
liberating to have a record company that
encouraged me to take these kinds of

With The Other Side of Time launching
her solo career on a high note, Mary
Fahl is focusing on the future.  "I'm
excited by the prospect of touring
again," she says.  "The intensity of
live performance and the intimacy
established with an audience energize

"When you're really moved by music, or
film, or theatre or any kind of art,
you feel you've been transported, and
that feeling stays with you," Fahl
concludes.  "Taking the listener on an
emotional journey has always been my goal
whenever I'm making a record or
performing live, and I hope we've
achieved it with this album."