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Lisa Cuthbert - Paramour - 2012 album fundraiser

Lille, France
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Paramour is the name of Lisa Cuthbert's second studio project, scheduled for release in autumn 2012.

 

par·a·mour (pr-mr)
n.
A lover, especially one in an adulterous relationship.
[Middle English, from par amour, by way of love, passionately, from Anglo-Norman : par, by (from Latin per; see per1 in Indo-European roots) + amour, love (from Latin amor, from amre, to love).]     - from thefreedictionary.com

 

I originally came across the term Paramour in some gothic fiction I couldn't put down. The word was used by a fanatically religious character, referring to a soul doomed to spend eternity lost between heaven and hell for commiting "earthly sins" -Ironically, I fell in love with the word!

It was around that time that I got interested in one of the most shocking scandals in the history of the catholic church in Ireland; the Magdalene Asylums, or "laundries".

Magdalene Asylums were institutions where catholic women were enslaved and forced to work beyond human endurance because they were considered unfit to live in Irish society. A woman was branded "fallen" if: she became pregnant, was a rape victim, illegitimate (born out of wedlock), orphaned, mentally handicapped, or even just too pretty.
The girls were stripped of their identities, forbidden to speak, and if they broke any of the rules or tried to escape they were severely beaten by the nuns, put in solitary confinement, or even sent to mental hospitals.

Over a period of 150 years, an estimated 30,000 women were imprisoned in the Magdalene Asylums, and the last one shut in 1996!!! That part is really shocking for me because by 1996 I had already been baptised in the catholic church and was attending a catholic convent school in Dublin. It's horrific to think that I've been raised and educated with the same values and morals imposed by an organisation that destroyed so many lives.

These revelations (for want of a better word) are the inspiration behind "Paramour". The album is much darker and dramatic than anything I've done before musically, and it revolves around fictional characters that I created with the theme in mind. These characters include the victim, the lovers, the paramour, the by-stander, the prisoner and the mother, all of whose lives have been affected in some way by organised religion. They're not so different from one another, and they're all asking the same questions throughout the album...

LC

Gallery: 
Week One Recap!
Monday, 16 January, 2012 - 14:30

Hi everyone!

Thanks so much for all your support, week one was amazing - particularly the number of times you all shared the project link on Facebook! To keep you up to date, I've just posted an audio message on Soundcloud to review the week's events:

http://soundcloud.com/lisacuthbert/lisa-cuthbert-paramour

Thanks again, everyone! Please keep sharing the link and telling everyone you know about the project! 

LC

Midpoint!
Wednesday, 22 February, 2012 - 05:51

Hello my lovelies!

Lots of stuff going on here lately, just wanted to send you all a little note as we hit the mid-point of the Paramour crowdfunding campaign! I’ll give you a quick rundown of the fundraiser, some gig announcements, and a few links to some stuff you may have missed, including a new live HD video!

Paramour: Songs for ‘Fallen Women’ - crowdfunder update!

We’ve reached the halfway point of the Paramour fundraiser and just had our first G-level pledge on Friday - that’s 500 EURO!  Other campaign highlights over the past several weeks were The Irish Daily Star running an article about the project (thanks again to Catriona at Starplus.ie!), King.FM in Berlin aired an hour-long artist profile (thanks, Tom!) and there have been an incredible number of link shares on Facebook and Twitter - nearly 1000 of each! In case you missed them, every weekend during the campaign I’ve been posting a short audio update on SoundCloud with all the latest developments and links: http://soundcloud.com/lisacuthbert/sets/talkies-boooop. We’re getting there, but there is still a lot of work to do over the next six weeks. Now that you’ve helped spread the word, please consider making a pledge, and encourage your friends to follow your example - every little bit helps!

Hit the Lights!

Now, as promised, I have a couple of new gig announcements for you: on Friday, April 6, I will be opening for Ocho at their CD release party in Dublin, and this Saturday, February 25th at 9 am (Greenwich Mean Time) I will also be performing in Second Life at the virtual concert venue, Idle Rogue: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Idle%20Rogue/128/128/0?title=Idle%...

Linkings

We recently gave the lisacuthbert.webs main page a bit of a makeover, let me know what you think! http://lisacuthbert.webs.com

Follow this link to hear all the latest live tracks and covers I’ve uploaded to SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/lisacuthbert/sets/covers-and-live-tracks

A nod to Scotland’s first online record store Insularis Records in Glasgow:http://www.insularisrecords.com/  (Allan, Olly, and Craig are really cool, friendly guys who support independent music - and they even distribute Obstacles for me in Scotland, so please go check them out and tell ‘em Lisa sent you!)

IMRO, the Irish Music Rights Organization, is hugely supportive of Irish musicians - and we’re
Throwing Acorns, a blog written by and for the Dutch fantasy community. Can’t wait to see you very grateful to Claire and David for their support of the fundraiser. Thanks guys! http://www.imro.ie/imro_article/lisa-cuthbert-paramour
all this summer!
http://throwingacorns.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/lisa-cuthberts-paramour/

Music Without Labels, a blog for independent artists, did a cool feature about the project - thank you so much!: http://musicwithoutlabels.com/2012/01/15/lisa-cuthbert-paramour-2nd-albu...

And, last but not least, we’ve posted the second in a trilogy of live HD videos shot during my gig in Amsterdam, opening for Marillion at Paradiso. Here it is!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl5g3sP6M7o

Thanks a million to all of my pledgers so far, and please keep spreading the word about the crowdfunder! Have a great week!

Over and out! :)

Lisa

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