THE MUSIC

 

Red Tide

Red Tide is an EP featuring tracks from a long outstanding album project, Skálá, which is an album I wrote and recorded during my visit to Iceland in July to September, 2010. I basically locked myself away in friend Svavar Knútur’s cabin/holiday house in the remote north of Iceland for the best part of three months and got to work. This EP features 6 tracks taken from recordings made in the cabin, and demos such as Dead Horse, and this release also acts as a preview to Skálá which is due out mid 2012. Red Tide will be officially released in January 2012.

 

Life in Reverb

This retrospective album is a collection of audible photographs of a life between 1998 and 2005. A life that was discovering a new city, new friends, new love and new experiences. It was the most important part of my journey in Melbourne because it was the period where I was growing the most as a musician. After 2005, I made new choices, my life took a different turn and I became a different songwriter. But during this era (1998 - 2005) I was hungry and in love with my musical freedom. I was a dreamer and certainly a little lost, but mostly lost in discovering the unknown terrain of musical exploration. Life in reverb was released November 2011.

 

Extinct Hearts

Jona Byron's beautiful debut album ‘Extinct Hearts' is a seminal piece of work. The tracks cover the last few years of Jona's musical and human journey. 'Hearts' oozes longevity and a deep emotional core, while also acting as a musical journal. 

The single ‘Beautiful Bird' conjures delicate moments of the late Elliot Smith and paints a story of mental illness and a lovers fading hope while resting on well-crafted melodies and stunning vocals. The angsty title opener ‘Extinct Hearts' rides on a hypnotic pulse of bass, organ and dense guitars, and acts as a warning, as Byron reflects on a world gone mad. ‘Glass Jaws' opens with subtle acoustics and banjo yet blooms into a powerful acoustic tour de force, with it's catchy melody, strong bass (played by Edmondo Ammendola of Augie March) and evocative imagery. The devastating ‘Arm Yourself' rolls like a medieval Leonard Cohen song complete with haunting cello work by Francesca Mountfort, while the cover of the classic Bob Dylan song ‘The Times They Are A Changing' is a beautiful departure from the original and works more as a contemporary apocalyptic anti-war song. 

The album was produced by Jona himself in various houses, studios and locations across Melbourne, with producer Myles Mumford (Lamplight, Kate Vigo) stepping in for some minimal production at Atlantis Sound. 'Extinct Hearts' is a giant leap for an artist who has been behind the curtain for much too long. 
Extinct Hearts was released Nov 17, 2009 through Popboomerang Records / MGM Distribution. 
Enjoy the new digital bonus edition now, including bonus and rare tracks such as 'Visions' and 'The Harder Ships of The World' - 26/11/10

 

Dead Horse

A new track simply titled 'Dead Horse', written in Svavar Knútur's cabin in the remote north of Iceland. Inspired by the remains of a horse that once fell into a ditch on the property. The horse was too heavy to lift out and so it died and decayed there, and now all that's left is it's skeletal remains. But the song is really about the cycle of life...all creatures born into the earth must all return to the earth. I recorded this demo on the 6th September at Svavar's apartment in Reykjavík, using an old 'Avantone CR-14' ribbon microphone, which is responsible for it's analogue sound.

Dead Horse (demo) - Jona Byron by sound zoo recordings

Lyrics

I'm a creature of the mountain, wild will is my courage from the sea 
On all fours in the heather, I am hungry, I am longing to be free 
I'm a young horse, ancient bred, I'm a giant standing on his hind legs 
I'm a monster in disguise, feeling lost in the hills that have eyes 
Feel the spirits of the beasts, down on man, down on me, I forget 
I've been walking over land, over rocks, over sand, resounding breath 
  
I'm a dead horse fallen down, in this hole in the ground, I am left 
I'm a dead horse in the ground, never lifted, never found, I live here 
  
I'm the devil of a fish, I'm a bird that's flown too far from it's nest 
I'm the cold island wind, I'm the cover of cloud rolling in 
  
I'm a dead horse in a ditch, where I fell, where I once had lived 
You can remember living things when you find the remains of me  
  
In a field, in the ground, lies the bones of all things to be found 
In the cycle, we grow up, then we go back to the soil of the earth 
I had a beautiful life, I was here and then it was my time

Ooh this life takes away, ooh this life gives back

I'm a dead horse in the ground, never lifted, never found, I live here

 

A demo I recorded back in Melbourne just before I left for Europe. It's called 'Bird In The Coal', I hope you enjoy this free download.

Bird In The Coal by sound zoo recordings