Nedelle Torrisi

From her collaborations with prominent indie acts in the mid-2000s to her solo work combining lush dream pop, R&B, jazz, and folk, Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Nedelle Torrisi has established herself as a compelling and versatile artist. With a jazz drummer father and a classical pianist mother, Torrisi grew up playing a variety of instruments, including violin, piano, and guitar. She eventually started composing and arranging her own material, which eventually led to her Republic of Two debut, released in May of 2003. An album of duets with Thom Moore was released in 2004 as Summerland, and her second solo record, From the Lion's Mouth, followed in 2005. The next year, she appeared on the Curtains’ album Calamity; in 2007, her third album, The Locksmith Cometh, was released. After the Curtains dissolved, Torrisi teamed with that band’s founder Chris Cohen, for another project, Cryptacize. They went on to release two albums, 2008′s Dig That Treasure and 2009′s Mythomania, before splitting. During this period and afterward, Torrisi lent her musical talents to other musicians, appearing as a contributor on albums by Xiu Xiu, Half-Handed Cloud, and Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, among others. She also appeared as a member of Sufjan Stevens’ touring band after Cryptacize folded. Her fourth album was recorded with Kenny Gilmore, her friend from Ariel Pink’s band. After a long gestation period that took two years and included a laptop lost in a Russian taxicab, Nedelle Torrisi appeared online in late summer of 2013. That same year, Nedelle began an online romance and dating advice site called Advice from Paradise, offering indie song recommendations to accompany her insights into the lovelorn patrons who wrote in asking for help. The site gained momentum and brought more attention to her music. In late 2014, she toured with Of Montreal, and by February of the next year her long-labored solo album from 2013 saw wider physical release, this time retitled Advice from Paradise. A U.K. release of the album with an added EP of piano and vocal versions of some of its songs was released in the summer of 2016. During this time, Torrisi had been working on follow-up album in Los Angeles, transforming a set of early demos into a vibrant and focused collection of lovelorn indie R&B and pop. Co-producing with Billy Uomo (Babes), she released the sleek Only for You in the spring of 2018. ~ David Serra