Jen Cloher and the Endless Sea

with Brendan Welch Band and Young Werther

ARIA award nominated musician Jen Cloher is pleased to announce the release of her sophomore album Hidden Hands, available July 10 through Sandcastle Music.

Jen Cloher and the Endless Sea will launch Hidden Hands with two intimate shows on Saturday 11 July at the Toff in Town in Melbourne, and Saturday 18 July at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney.

Reading through the lyrics to Jen Cloher’s second album Hidden Hands is like being handed a confidential diary. That may come as a surprise to those who fell in love with the dark narratives of her 2006 ARIA nominated debut Dead Wood Falls, but accept Cloher’s invitation to get musically intimate and you’re in for a treat.

You’ll learn that the reason Cloher disappeared just when things were taking off, was so that she could be with her Alzheimer’s inflicted mother in New Zealand. Cloher and her band The Endless Sea had spent two years on the road supporting the likes of Jose Gonzales, Laura Veirs, Missy Higgins, Ben Lee, Josh Pyke and Mia Dyson as well as completing several national headline tours of their own. They were invited to join some impressive festival line-ups including Homebake, The Falls and Queenscliff and were selected alongside Lior and Blue King Brown in welcoming His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Australia as part of the One Earth concert.

The album’s opening track, ‘Mother’s Desk’ vividly sets the scene for the genesis of Hidden Hands where we find Cloher holed up in Auckland, grappling her mother’s illness, and facing writer’s block. But fate cannot be fought. As she sings in the title song, “We can only go where we’re meant to go. Hidden hands will help us along.”

Those hands soon guided Cloher back to Melbourne towards the end of 2008, with a new swag of songs, and an expanded group of friends to help bring them to life. The services of ARIA winning producer Paul McKercher (Augie March, Sarah Blasko) and creative genius Laura Jean were enlisted to join Cloher in recording and producing the album. Time was booked at Woodstock studios and at the end of seven days, Cloher and her band emerged with Hidden Hands.

Consisting of Jen Cloher (vocals, guitar), Geoff Dunbar (bass), Jen Sholakis (drums), Biddy Connor (viola, musical saw), and Michael Hubbard (guitar) Jen Cloher and The Endless Sea are pleased to make a return to the live circuit in 2009.

An album written in an environment of contrasting emotions, Hidden Hands is a reflection on sadness, beauty and love – and it promises to be one of 2009’s most anticipated releases.

Share this gig on Facebook

or Follow The Dwarf