Elisa Luu
“an astonishingly talented artist, crafting immersive and emotive soundfields with ease” – Luna Kafe
Though digitally crafted, Elisa Luu’s music is warm, inviting and uniquely human, betraying a vulnerability and sensitivity that is rarely found in the male-dominated sphere of electronica. With its sighing, lilting qualities, Elisa Luu’s music reawakens a sense of childlike wonder and adventure with every sprawliong and sparkling track.
Discography
Enchanting Gaze
November 2014
On Enchanting Gaze, Elisa Luu’s shimmering tones and deftly handled rhythms are manipulated into breathtaking new shapes. On tracks such as ‘Bro’, expansive synths paint wondrous starscapes, while the gritty ‘B.P.M.’ chases beats and growing drones through dark city streets. Enchanting Gaze manages to beautifully balance its cosmic/terrestrial duality throughout its six tracks, making it a wonderful progression in the Elisa Luu discography.
Un Giorno Sospeso
July 2012
Un Giorno Sospeso is the new album by Italian ambient electronica artist Elisa Luu. As evidenced on recently released single ‘Se Fosse Per Me’, Un Giorno Sospeso is dense with chiming tones, buoyant beats, skittering horns and immersive drones. From the shimmering, levitating tones of ‘Flussigirl’ to the rattling, dark drone-beat of ‘Il Tempo Di Capire’, Elisa Luu’s brilliant marriage of texture and composition is on virtuoso display. Elisa Luu’s alchemical touch is in full bloom on this, her long-awaited second album for Hidden Shoal. Her uniquely crafted compositions carry a warmth and vulnerability that belies their digitally manipulated textures. The album takes the glorious blueprint of debut Chromatic Sigh and accentuates the highlights and shadows, making for a deliciously disorientating trip.
Chromatic Sigh
September 2009
Though digitally crafted, Chromatic Sigh is warm, inviting and uniquely human, betraying a vulnerability and sensitivity that is rarely found in the male-dominated sphere of electronica. With its sighing, lilting qualities, Elisa Luu’s music reawakens a sense of childlike wonder and adventure with every sprawling and sparkling track. The album deftly moves in and out of the realms of ambient and electronica, creating a blissful, liminal realm where everything is rendered transformative. The opening title track is a shifting kaleidoscope of drones, enveloping the listener with its gorgeous metallic haze. Single ‘The Garden’ creates a humid atmosphere of synths and glistening textures, carried aloft by crisp, skittering drum breaks. Melancholic centerpiece ‘Slow Bass Flute’ – which also appeared on debut EP Floating Sounds (Phantom Channel) – is so emotionally weighty that one can’t help but feel humbled in its presence. And album closer ‘Warn Plate’ is the gentle return to terra firma, leaving the listener conscious of having visited somewhere unique, complex and beautiful.
Unreleased
A collection of previously unreleased tracks from Elisa Luu. All available for licensing as part of the Hidden Shoal Publishing catalogue.
Biography
Elisa Luu (Elisabetta Luciani) is a Rome-based composer, who began her musical career as a jazz/fusion saxophone player. Elisa has been involved in a number of musical projects over the years, including fusion quartet Prodotti Speciali and Short’s Monday Night Jazz Orchestra. She has also participated in Berklee Jazz clinics, where she received special mention as an alto sax player.
In 2007 Elisa began to compose electronic music using flute, saxophone and guitar as sound sources. Though digitally crafted, Elisa Luu’s music is warm, inviting and uniquely human, betraying a vulnerability and sensitivity that is rarely found in the male-dominated sphere of electronica.
In 2008, UK net label Phantom Channel released her debut EP Floating Sounds, which garnered glowing online reviews. Chromatic Sigh is her first full-length release.
Accompanied by her two beloved dogs, Elisa is constantly creating new music in her home studio, away from the madding Roman bustle.
News
Hidden Shoal in Textura’s Ten Favourite Labels of 2018 List!
Hidden Shoal is incredibly honoured to have been selected as one of Textura’s Ten Favourite Labels of 2018. Textura is, in our opinion, the premiere new music magazine and favourite of the label team for unearthing and exposing new and exciting new music. This is the second time Hidden Shoal has been selected in Textura’s best labels list and as always we are nestled against some other very special labels, all of who you should check out.Now for a very brief and unnecessary acceptance speech – we are nothing without our incredible roster of artists, who continually amaze, inspire and surprise us. Thank you all!
Continue reading →Eat Your Friends: A Hidden Shoal 10th Anniversary Compilation
Hidden Shoal is excited to end the celebration of its 10th year of existence with the new compilation album Eat Your Friends, comprising remixes and covers of Hidden Shoal artists, by Hidden Shoal artists. This freely downloadable album not only showcases the wealth of original music released through Hidden Shoal, but also the creative ingenuity and deft musical touch of the remixers and cover artists.From searing solar-flared adaptations to delicately reconstructed covers, deep space jam reworkings, and shimmering ambient tapestries, Eat Your Friends reimagines the Hidden Shoal discography in new and beautiful ways, playing to all the strengths of the roster’s dizzying array of talent.
Includes remixes and covers by: Antonymes, Arc Lab, Glanko, Wayne Harriss, Liminal Drifter, Makee, Chloe March, Markus Mehr, Erik Nilsson, REW<<, Slow Dancing Society, Tin Manzano, Willem Gator, and Zealous Chang of music by: Arc Lab, Brother Earth, Cheekbone, City of Satellites, Medard Fischer, Gilded, Glanko & Daniel Bailey, Kryshe, Memorybell, Erik Nilsson, perth, Slow Dancing Society, Tangled Star, Umpire, and Zealous Chang.
Eat Your Friends is available now as a free download via Bandcamp and is also streamable via SoundCloud. Listen and then throw yourself into the wormhole as you explore the originals and more work by the remixers and cover artists. For all the filmmakers, games designers and others in need of engaging music, don’t forget that all tracks in our catalogue are available for licensing (film, tv, games, compilations etc).
Continue reading →Hidden Shoal is 10!
Hidden Shoal is extremely excited to be celebrating its 10th birthday this month. It’s hard to believe that back in May 2006, Perth-based musicians Cam Merton, Stuart Medley and Malcolm Riddoch began Hidden Shoal Recordings as a means to put out releases by local artists. Tim Clarke, based in Melbourne, joined the team in 2007. Hidden Shoal has since gone on to become a much-loved independent label and publisher, releasing over 120 albums from a diverse range of international artists and licensing music from its catalogue across film, tv, web and compilation.Stay tuned for special anniversary announcements in the coming months!
Continue reading →“Long Range Transmissions” MixTape Edition
Here we present the MixTape version of Long Range Transmissions, the first in a new series of themed compilations from Hidden Shoal. The album showcases the ambient and neo-classical side of the catalogue, bringing together beautiful tracks from artists as diverse as Robert Pollard collaborator Todd Tobias, British chamber-pop songwriter Chloe March, and American ambient nostalgist Slow Dancing Society. From the delicate piano of Antonymes, Kryshe, Gilded and Medard Fischer, and the celestial experimentalism of Elisa Luu, Markus Mehr and Cheekbone, to the expansive guitarscapes of My Majestic Star, Erik Nilsson and Sleeping Me, Long Range Transmissions is an essential introduction to just one of the many facets of the Hidden Shoal label and licensing catalogue.Long Range Transmissions is also available as a free downloadable album via BandCamp.
“Long Range Transmissions” – A Hidden Shoal Compilation by Hidden Shoal on Mixcloud
Continue reading →“Long Range Transmissions” – Free Hidden Shoal Compilation
We’re excited to announce the release of Long Range Transmissions, the first in a new series of themed, freely downloadable compilations. Long Range Transmissions showcases the ambient and neo-classical side of the Hidden Shoal catalogue, bringing together beautiful tracks from artists as diverse as Robert Pollard collaborator Todd Tobias, British chamber-pop songwriter Chloe March, and American ambient nostalgist Slow Dancing Society. From the delicate piano of Antonymes, Kryshe, Gilded and Medard Fischer, and the celestial experimentalism of Elisa Luu, Markus Mehr and Cheekbone, to the expansive guitarscapes of My Majestic Star, Erik Nilsson and Sleeping Me, Long Range Transmissions is an essential introduction to just one of the many facets of the Hidden Shoal label and licensing catalogue.The albums is freely downloadable via BandCamp and can also be streamed at SoundCloud and MixCloud. The album also features gorgeous artwork by Gabrielle Harcourt, with the Bandcamp download coming with a bundled PDF booklet.
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Hidden Shoal Artists in Underground of Happiness Best of 2014
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The Underground of Happiness radio show and blog is a firm favourite here at Hidden Shoal so it’s always an honour to get some love and kudos from it’s host, the lovely Conor O’Toole. And what nicer kudos to receive than seeing four Hidden Shoal artists in their best of 2014 lists. Brother Earth, Chloe March, Elisa Luu and Markus Mehr all made The Underground of Happiness best of lists this year along with a range of other wonderful artists. Check out Chloe’s, Elisa’s and Markus’s mentions here and then Brother Earth’s here.Elisa Luu’s “Enchanting Gaze” Mini-Album Out Now!
We’re excited to announce the release of the stunning new mini-album Enchanting Gaze by Italian ambient electronica artist Elisa Luu. The album is available on CD and Digital through La bel netlabel in collaboration with Hidden Shoal via La bel’s Bandcamp. Don’t forget to grab the free download of the first single ‘Shebeen’ here.On Enchanting Gaze, Elisa Luu’s shimmering tones and deftly handled rhythms are manipulated into breathtaking new shapes. On tracks such as ‘Bro’, expansive synths paint wondrous starscapes, while the gritty ‘B.P.M.’ chases beats and growing drones through dark city streets. Enchanting Gaze manages to beautifully balance its cosmic/terrestrial duality throughout its six tracks, making it a wonderful progression in the Elisa Luu discography.
“You could make a film or a slideshow of your life or your art to go with it and no matter what, this soundscape would pull your story toward cool, disciplined discoveries. 9/10” – SSG
Continue reading →New Elisa Luu Single & Forthcoming EP
We’re excited to share the beautiful new single ‘Shebeen’ from Italian ambient electronica artist Elisa Luu. The track is lifted from the forthcoming EP Enchanting Gaze which will be released through La bel netlabel in collaboration with Hidden Shoal on the 3rd of November. Grab the free download of ‘Shebeen’ here.On Enchanting Gaze, Elisa Luu’s shimmering tones and deftly handled rhythms are manipulated into breathtaking new shapes. On tracks such as ‘Bro’, expansive synths paint wondrous starscapes, while the gritty ‘B.P.M.’ chases beats and growing drones through dark city streets. Enchanting Gaze manages to beautifully balance its cosmic/terrestrial duality throughout its six tracks, making it a wonderful progression in the Elisa Luu discography.
Continue reading →More US Radio Love for Team Shoal!
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KBRP (Arizona) loving for Hidden Shoal as Gilded get a CMJ rotation add , Slow Dancing Society sit at 22 on the Top 30 and Elisa Luu sits at number 4 and Slow Dancing Society number 7 on the Electronic Chart. Go team!Elisa Luu Rocking The US College Radio Charts!
Elisa Luu’s stunning new album Un Giorno Sospeso continues to impress in the US as it takes its place in the Top 30 and specialty charts at a range of US college radio stations. Here’s a sample from the last few weeks – 9 on the WCBN Top 30 chart, 4 on the CJSW Experimental Chart, 3 on the Ashville FM Experimental chart and 25 on their Top30, 27 on the KDVS Top 30 charts, 10 on the CFRU Electronic chart, 8 on the CHUO Electronic chart. We’ll post more as we hunt them down!Un Giorno Sospeso is available now as a limited edition CD (with immediate FLAC or MP3 download) as well in most digital formats including lossless. Head to the Hidden Shoal Store for all details including the freely downloadable single ‘Se fosse per me…‘.
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Reviews
Elisa Luu “Enchanting Gaze” Reviewed at Yeah I Know It Sucks
“Elisa Luu’s Enchanting Gaze is an album that is of the pretty kind, something that lightens up and gives that special sparkle of a having a wonderful day. Not unlike other releases, this one has tracks inside. Let me tell you all about it:
A track named ‘Sabadilla’ opens the ‘Enchanting Gaze’ up with the perfect excitement of an early morning in which the sun pops up to high five the departing full moon, sets a top in the sky and shines it’s colors of light over a pretty landscape, With lots of harmony, devotionally waking up of a good happy day with warm emotional strings as the blankets and piano notes as the early morning birds. With music like this; it is going to be a lovely day!
Shebeen seems to sketch a land side in which happy sheeps will be gazing and happily dancing on green fresh grass, happy human friends rolling down the hills and a bright sun oversees it all. It’s a perfect happy and lovely world that Elisa Luu puts down here in music form, with a sweet amount of electronics, uplifting guitar and just ‘a vibe’ to be felt in the heart and in elastic legs for a wobbling sensation of natural happiness! In search for music to be depressed with? You definitely won’t find such a thing over here! This is all about the sound of joy, giggles and smiles!
Then there is the pleasure-to-meet-in-hearing-form a track named B.P.M. Which features these quality sounds that sounded very Matmos like, but then quickly gets blended into a style of its own, in which rapid beats & pretty warm sounding moments gather for great perfection. Together they form a nice rolling groove of rhythmic ambient with warrior like artifacts.
Communia is a great track that does its ultimate best to stun the listener with its great care for mysterious detail. The track is organic, progressive, beautiful, superbly crispery in the electric parts and deliciously wonderful in each melodic exposure. I don’t know what you want me to write as its perfection in its beautiful forms! No joke!The sweetness of the odd time does exactly as it is suggested in the title. It’s sweet, kind but also has a funny cartoonish sparkle hopping in and out; it made me think of a ballet performance by a elephant in a tutu, perhaps dancing with a graceful flamingo. The music is very summery, relaxing and yet has that lively element of elder elephants serenading the one in the tutu.
The last track ‘Bro..’ is one last pleasure in audio form. Everything is gentle, warm, caring and kind. It must be the good kind of ‘bro’ that this track is named after. I really feel I should stop chatting away and just give you the precious link from which you could hear and get this lovely release.”
Continue reading →“Long Range Transmissions” Reviewed at Tome To The Weather Machine
“I am an unabashed Hidden Shoal fan. The Australian label has been pumping out releases of lush, cinematic aspirations of ambient and neo-classical artists for a better part of it’s existence that, at times, is overcome by its eclectic output ranging from conspiracy-punks to 90’s slowcore revivalists to every deriviation of weirdos (Australian and otherwise) in between. Long Distance Transmissions, however, is a surprisingly cohesive collection of sprawling ambient, electro-acoustic, post-classical and just about ever derivation (Australian and otherwise) of lushly produced, slightly melancholic, wordless music in between. Highlights include Markus Mehr’s Tim Hecker-meets-Heinz Riegler meditative distorted synth composition “Hubble, the chopped and glitched electro-acoustic number by Kryshe, the minor key minimalist techno of Cheekbone and the emotional heft of the 80’s nostalgia of Slow Dancing Society’s bubbling arpeggios and soundtrack-worthy dynamics. It makes sense that Hidden Shoal also exists as a licensing company, many of these compositions, if not already, seem to soundtrack some deeply resonant scenes in films (never made).”
Continue reading →“Long Range Transmissions” Hidden Shoal Compilation Album
“Happened across this as we were turning it in for the night, a new name your price downloadable compilation by Australia’s finest purveyors of elegantly drawn dream pop Hidden Shoals. Entitled ‘long range transmissions’ it features a gathering of talents, some familiar – Antonymes, Markus Mehr, Slow Dancing Society et al along with some not so such as gilded and cheekbone. However what attracted us apart from the obvious as ever high quality seductive ambience tonalities literally peeling from the grooves was a delightful little thing from Elisa Luu entitled ‘chromatic sigh’. A breathlessly beautiful slice of porcelain noir classicism, an all too brief heavenly visitation, the slow shift into focus of the sound of a celestial calling emerging into the open to bathe all in the tingling shower of warming radiance, an out of body astral gliding odyssey which for a moment utterly transfixes its delicately balanced and perfectly poised gaze to fix and fill you with ethereal enchantment. And so to something familiar, regular visitors to these pages will be all too aware of our affection for Chloe March who here with ‘old tree, mon coeur’ doesn’t disappoint in the slightest and into the bargain offers up this sweetly mesmerising rustic ghost light, a fairy dust sprayed dream draped lost in the moment beguiling bouquet that shyly treads in the kind of amorphous star twinkled worlds of Musetta albeit as though aided and abetted by a soiree of siren sighs from a chill tripped Laetita and Mary from Stereolab.”
Continue reading →“Lost In Transmissions” Compilation Reviewed at Wake The Deaf
“You might recognise Hidden Shoal from our piece on Olive Skinned, Silver Tongued Sirens Sing Swan Songs, the latest album from REW<<. The label has recently released Long Range Transmissions, the first in a series of themed compilations which showcase the ambient/neo-classical acts in their catalogue. It’s the perfect place to introduce yourself to a diverse and interesting collective of musicians.
While the collection comes from a particular genre, there is still room for much variation across the thirteen tracks. Antonymes and Kryshe favour fragile, graceful piano, Cheekbone push a sci-fi inspired electronica and Chloe March creates a lush chamber pop. Todd Tobias evokes a mixture of shimmering bliss and nostalgia, his track ‘Nan Madol’ playing like a super-cinematic missing number from the Twin Peaks soundtrack, while Stockholm’s Erik Nilsson’s gently tropical ‘Drawing/Dreaming’ feels like watching the sun set into the sea on the last night of your holiday. Other highlights include the goosebump-inducing melodrama of Slow Dancing Society’s ‘Pull’, Elisa Luu’s ethereal ‘Chromatic Sigh’ and the aching melancholy of closing track ‘Empty Cradles’ by Sleeping Me.”
Continue reading →Elisa Luu “Enchanting Gaze” Reviewed at Igloo Mag
“Ringing in summer with church bells made of piano wire and synthesizer nubbins chiming charmingly out of sync, “Sabadilla” opens Elisa Luu’s brief but memorable new collection of sound art pieces. Her Enchanting Gaze is fixed on the close and personal, eschewing grand gestures in favor of the grandness of her warm, small ones. Six pieces gather wool as Luu daydreams aloud, ideating musics as concrete as an Irish jig danced out the door, onto the green and toward the stars (“Shebeen,”) as unexpectedly just right as the mirror ball flourishes sweeping an insect square dance (“B.P.M.”) and big city bustle observed out a cafe window (“Communia,”) and as ambiently ungraspable as “The Sweetness of the Odd Time,” whose richness of color and spirit lingers long after “Bro…” elegantly ascends and leaves us earthbound, gazing admiringly upward.”
Continue reading →Elisa Luu “Enchanting Gaze” Reviewed at Disquiet
“The six tracks of Elisa Luu’s Enchanting Gaze are mosaics made of fractures. Each piece is more than cohesive enough to stand as a composition, like the string-inflected “Sabadilla,” with which the collection opens, or the pluck’n’drone of closing track “Bro…” — but within each piece the source segments stand sturdily alone, so much so that the compositions themselves threaten to fall apart, to fall into parts. This isn’t a criticism. Quite the contrary, it’s the very solidity of the source material from which Enchanting Gaze is constructed that gives it strength. Luu refers to the work as “post-ambient.” Others might cite minimalism, whose rigor the work reflects, event if it favors tonal phrasings and occasional rhythmic whimsy, as on the creakily industrial “B.P.M.,” over overt patterning. This is a phenomenal set.”
– Disquiet
Continue reading →Elisa Luu ‘Shebeen’ In The Underground of Happiness Best of 2014
“A welcome return last year for two of Hidden Shoal’s family of stalwart and brilliantly individual electronic artists. Rome native Elisa Luu produced another delirious mix of found sounds and ambient haze with a sprinkling of space dust on her appropriately titled Enchanted gaze album. What’s so great about this particular track is how she takes something as familiar as an acoustic guitar riff and brushed drums into unexpected and even alien new directions. Delightfully unpredictable.”
– The Underground of Happiness
Continue reading →Elisa Luu “Enchanting Gaze” Reviewed At Luna Kafe
“Last moonth we checked out Elisa Luu’s single, “Shebeen”, and here’s the rest of the album. A mini-album, that is, as the 6 tracks clocks in at (less than) 35 minutes. Which is a perfect length, I believe.
The music of Luu floats on so calm and relaxed, in a most comforting way. Which has been a fact before, like with her former albums Chromatic Sigh and Un Giorno Sospeso. Yes, it is a fact this time as well. The songs fit brilliant to each other, shoulder to shoulder. The slower tunes and the more rhythmic ones. Elisa Luu creates shimmering and sparkling melodies and rhythms. Her music is glowing, her songs radiate with heat and steam, but they also unveil these elegant hints and tints of cool as well. “Shebeen” is super, but the marvellous, spellbinding “Communia” and the beautiful “The sweetness of the odd time” are the winners this time. Perfect moods, with the most accurate sonic toppings. Elisa Luu’s music has an immersive timbre. Her well-planned and neatly composed, arranged, and performed compositions of floating and vibrant electronica, oozes with affection and human warmth. Enchanting Gaze is an enchanting listen. Period.”
Continue reading →Elisa Luu ‘Shebeen’ Reviewed at Recent Music Heroes
“Shebeen is the first single from Rome residing Elisabetta Luciani`s brand new album Enchanting Gaze. The single consists of manipulated sonic effects, catchy repeated folk chords, exuberant electronic hovers and ambient loaded panoramas. Undoubtedly she is an outstanding artist. For instance, I can remember for her album The time of waiting (2010, La bèl) which was a tumultuous but organic mix of spherical electronic music, spectral sound art, experimental rock influences and (modern) classical music. In a word, get her new album and enjoy it!”
Continue reading →Elisa Luu ‘Shebeen’ Reviewed at Luna Kafe
“Some weeks ago Hidden Shoal shared Elisa Luu’s brand new single, which is a taster lifted from her upcoming EP/mini-album, Enchanting Gaze. The EP is already out here, released through La bel net-label in collaboration with Hidden Shoal. We’ll get back to it next month.
Elisa Luu (or Elisabetta Luciani) is based in Roma (or Rome) and she sneaks out electronic, ambient music which catch you in its web. Her musical compositions are highly attractive, and so is this new single, “Shebeen”. It starts quietly, before its chant and power turns upwards. It is a swirling, twisting song, which is indeed gripping and captivating. As well as it keeps the necessary mystery within itself. I am really looking forward to checking out Enchanting Gaze. While you are at it you’d better check out Luu’s album from two years ago, Un Giorno Sospeso as well.”
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Artist Photos
Music Videos
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Licensing
Elisa Luu’s music is available for licensing (master & sync cleared) through Hidden Shoal. Please contact us with some basic details about your project and the track(s) you wish to use and we’ll be sure to get back to you straight away.