We had the most wonderful photoshoot and practice yesterday with the marvelous people of Detritus! There was a LOT of blush involved, but hey – what could be a better way to start a new project than by stroking each other’s faces gently? STILL IN OUR SHADE, our collaboration with these amazing Baroque musicians and dancer Tero Hytönen is to take place in Helsinki on November 20, 2016, so save the date, Sweethearts!
Pictures by Juha Reunanen.
Filed under Inspiration, News, Still in your shade
Dear broads and bos, Welcome to Casablanca!
The album release party for Is This Casablanca? is getting close, and the release date is set for 6th of February, 2015. The album will be available as a CD or a digital download from our Bandcamp page and through iTunes, Spotify and Deezer. In Finland the CD can be bought from the few independent record stores still left in Helsinki, starting from the end of February. You can also get it from one of our shows, signed and doodled on by the whole mob. For international orders of the CD, please contact us via e-mail, contact[at]cafedeabejas.com.
Here are a few tracks from the new album for you to savor, Sweethearts. The first one is called Go Gently, a song on the chanson side of things. The second, Zaza, gives a feel for our penchant for all things cabaret. Please enjoy responsibly, and take a look at the photos below to really get in the mood!
The delightful Armi Von Vep.
-Jere
Filed under Is This Casablanca?, Music
As you may know by now, we’re in the middle of making our second album.
As with the first one, we have a crowd funding campaign going on. And! Just a couple of hours ago our goal at Mesenaatti.me was reached (and exceeded)! Thank you, thank you, darlings, for pre-ordering and letting us know, that the album is expected! And thanks to everyone who shared the campaign at Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and even by word of mouth, we could not have done this without you!
So as a very small token of gratitude for the absolutely overwhelming results with the Mesenaatti campaign here are some wallpapers we made of the upcoming album’s artwork. There’s a desktop wallpaper (1920x1080p), and a few different mobile wallpapers (480×800), mainly because iOS7 uses a parallax effect and won’t align wallpapers as intended. So we recommend you use the last of these three images for iPhones with iOS7 installed.
We think we’ll go have a glass of bubbly now!
-Jere & Laura
Desktop background 1920x1080p. ©Café de Abejas 2014
Mobile background 480x800p. ©Café de Abejas 2014
Background for iPhones with iOS7, 480x800p. ©Café de Abejas 2014
Filed under Mesenaatti.me, News
What a night, what a night, what a beautiful night! Thank you for being so numerous, thank you for your overwhelming comments, it felt just as magical to us too! And yes, we do want it to happen again just as bad, stay tuned and we’ll figure something out! We are so fortunate to be able to do these things, and it’s all thanks to our wonderful team – Noora, Ilari, Saara, Roy, Luca, Martiina, Vera, Alisa, Juha, and all the people who have helped us is mysterious little and big ways – and YOU.
And YES we are making a new album and YES all the new songs you heard at Savoy are going to be on it. One word: Fall. In the meantime, we’re switching to summer mode – see our upcoming concerts, there are more being added every week! And once again thank you all, what amazing sweethearts you are!
Your loving and devoted
– Laura & Jere
Filed under KAMMERKABARETT
The Finnish flyer for our premiere at Savoy-teatteri in May.
Short and sweet, here’s what: We’re making a show! It’s premiering in May at the Savoy Theater in Helsinki! It’s going to have an entr’acte! It’s called KAMMERKABARETT!
It’s going to be romantic, and funny, and sad, and slightly surreal, and beautiful. We’re getting a trapeze, and veils, and hats and stop-motion videos onstage, and it’s all magical and fun and challenging and serious work. There are some new faces doing new things – like Noora Palotie, our Muse and my long-lost sister (that’s her up there in the hoop), her sweetheart Roy Boswell who’s in charge of technical affairs I understand very little about, his friend Luca Sirviö who designs the lighting, and Vera Schneider who has already measured the entire band for some lovely gowns and vested handsomeness.
We could not be more excited. Me and Jere are constantly at work – bouncing ideas off one another and everyone around us. For my part, I’m starting to worry: Am I going to have any friends at the end of Spring? Everytime I see anyone, all my news are related to the promo video we’re planning to make, the technical difficulties our video art is facing, and how happy I am about my new KAMMERKABARETT family. I thought album making was immersive, but this is a whole new deep.
Anyway, we’re soon posting pictures of our pre-production, everyone in the Helsinki area come and see our premiere at Savoy-teatteri on the 21st of May! You can buy tickets here at Lippupalvelu.
Oh, and by the way: We have been increasingly active on Twitter and Instagram lately (I finally updated my iPhone), go follow us at the links!
Love,
– Laura
Filed under KAMMERKABARETT, Live performances, News
“She’s wearing her favourite dress, the one that he bought.
And she’s put on her dancing shoes, she’s put on her rouge…”
Looking for something to fight the February blues? Here it is, our brand new, self-made music video for our ballad “The Captain and the Widow”! It’s a sad and romantic song full of longing, and so is the video, shot in September in two beautiful locations: In the deserted villas of Kruunuvuori and at Laura’s grandparents. It took us a while to finish, but here it is now, just in time for Valentine’s Day:
Take care of your Valentines and Valentinos, sweethearts! We are working hard on our first show KAMMERKABARETT, which premieres in Savoy-teatteri, Helsinki in May. Soon we’ll tell you all about it!
Filed under Inspiration, Music, News
Hello sweethearts,
here’s a new video for (I’d teach you how to) Fly, shot on the way from the island of Thasos to the Greek mainland a few weeks ago as we were going to visit the Roman site of Philippi on the Via Egnatia. A flock of seagulls followed our ferry, circling around it to a hypnotic, inaudible rhythm. It was beautiful, I was fascinated and captured the gliding birds. Beauty is often so very simple.
This is not really a music video, more like a postcard: It’s a moving photograph, a mindscape, a meditative moment I want to share with you. If you like it, feel free to spread it.
– Laura
Filed under Inspiration, Music
What a busy month! We’re organising concerts in Finland and in Europe (more info on this once we get some dates sorted out) and promoting Mascot Moth in the hopes of reaching more people who are sure to like it but don’t know about it yet – because that’s what promoting is all about, isn’t it?
We want to thank all you sweethearts who have sent us lovely feedback – we love to hear your thoughts, sentiments and impressions! You can drop us a line to contact(at)cafedeabejas.net, our Facebook or Twitter, or leave a comment below. If you’re shy, speechless or pressed for time, here’s an easy way to give us a word. Just because we’d love to know:
If you don’t know your favourite yet, you can listen to the entire album here:
And to those who wish to help, yes you can: Share your favourite song, tell a Film Noir cabaret -loving friend about us, write about us in your blog, tweet about #MascotMoth or @cafedeabejas, ask your radio station to play a song. We raise our glasses to your health and take pride in our fabulous sweethearts!
Love,
– Laura & Jere
Filed under Inspiration, News
Ah, it was Valentine’s Day! To celebrate, here’s the recipe for Strawberry Gin from our new cocktail booklet. This one is named after one of our songs, which came about as we were modelling for a portrait painting course last Winter. We were sitting motionless for over a week, Jere posing with his guitar, so we had plenty of practice and time on our hands – and no cocktail in sight!
The resulting lamentation can be heard here:
Since the cocktail plays such a prominent part in the song, it simply had to become reality. I think Strawberry Gin was the reason we thought of making a cocktail booklet in the first place: The word combination was simply too scrumptuous to let pass. So here’s what our heartbroken heroine is ordering:
3 parts Gin
1 part Cointreau
1 part Fresh lemon juice
1 part Strawberry juice or purée
Shake the ingredients and strain into a cocktail glass. If you wish to make an impresion on a certain someone, dry marascino cherries in the oven on a low temperature, crush them into powder and decorate the rim with it.
Sip for Byronesque heartache.
Strawberry and gin is a suprisingly smooth combination, and this is a potentially perilous drink. The savviest cocktail concocters will notice that it is a variation of the classic White Lady, which in turn is a Sidecar made with gin instead of brandy. You may have to adjust the recipe slightly depending on your strawberry ingredient: We’ve been using slightly sweetened juice, but Bar Suola’s version with strawberry purée was equally delicious.
Strawberry Gin has a solid fan base after it was served in our album release party. Drink a solitary glass for Valentine’s blues or order a couple to share with your sweetheart!
Two Strawberry Gins at our album release party.
Last Tuesday we were celebrating the release of Mascot Moth in 1920’s speakeasy style in Ravintola Suola, Helsinki. What a wonderful evening filled with cocktails, charleston and chanson! The bartenders were mixing three of our custom cocktails for our speakeasy guests: Café de Abejas, Strawberry Gin and Stepping on Roses.
After our set the lovely ladies from Helsinki Traditional Jazz Dance Company showed us how to do the Charleston in style. Needless to say, we partied like we were in the silent movies! This was the first time we played live together with both Ilari and Saara, and it felt just wonderful – we’ll be posting some ex tempore live material soon. Here are a few pictures by the wonderful Saara Olkkonen. You can see more photos from the party here.
– Laura & Jere
Filed under Cocktails, Live performances, Music, News
Café de Abejas 