Cape Town singer-songwriter Natalia has released her second album ‘Rules Of The Road’. This new 10-track album is Natalia’s second collection of her own songs following ‘Long Street Lullabies’, her debut album released in 2007. That same year Natalia won the annual Barleycorn Songwriting Competition with her entry ‘The Cigarette Song’, and her prize was an extended recording contract with My Music Matrix Studios in District Six, which Natalia used to produce this new album.

 

Natalia has relocated to London in early 2009 to pursue her musical career abroad and to follow up on a lot of interest she has received for her first album and this new, second offering, from parties in both the UK and Europe.

 

Natalia is a 22-year-old vocalist and guitarist who has established a strong local following over the past few years in Cape Town. This is due to the many live gigs she has performed over the past seven years, both in Cape Town as well as in Gauteng, acquainting audiences with her own brand of emotive female pop-rock.

 

Natalia’s other successful musical side project of the past year was as the singer in the duo, ‘Niskerone and Natalia’, which saw Natalia appearing on vocals alongside the high profile Cape Town Drum and Bass DJ Niskerone at the OppiKoppi Festival and at various festivals and clubs around Cape Town. There are plans for the duo to perform overseas during 2009 with some shows and festivals lined up in Spain during the upcoming European summer festival season.

 

While ‘Long Street Lullabies’ was a collection of Natalia’s early recordings, ‘Rules of the Road’ is Natalia’s first full length studio album proper. This 10-track album was written, performed and produced by Natalia and was recorded at My Music Matrix Studios with Aidan Harper and up-and-coming sound engineers Siya Ngadlela and Jason De Jongh.

 

Natalia’s friend and fellow musician, Joshua Grierson, came on board to add his characteristic melodic guitar lines and haunting voice on a few of the tracks. The pair have worked together many times over the past few years (appearing occasionally as the cult duo Signal Hill) and their creative connection can be heard and felt on the duet ‘These Flames’ and ‘Bad Avenue’. For this album, Natalia also collaborated with guest musicians Alain Joffe on bass, Kurt Diederiks and Rafi Segerman on drums, Ella Gabriel on piano, Luke Otto on Cello, and David Agranat and Richard Pryor on additional guitars.

 

The 10 tracks on the album range through a variety of styles and include the highlights ‘The Cigarette Song’, ‘I’m In Love with Somebody Else’, ‘Wooden Fireplace’, ‘Pens and Movies’ and ‘Yes-No Coin’. The song ‘Golden Touch’ was written for a close friend, Gideon Prodgers, who passed away in 2008 and the whole album is dedicated to his memory.

 

Physical copies of ‘Rules of the Road’ are available at Mabu Vinyl in Cape Town, and online from the Sugar Music online store at www.sugarmusic.co.za.