ANNABELLE CHVOSTEK Releases New Album "STRING OF PEARLS"

Blending the Canadian singer-songwriter tradition and her Slovakian heritage with a long-standing connection to Uruguay, the musically adventurous Annabelle Chvostek’s new album String of Pearls is set for worldwide digital release on March 26 and physical CD on April 16.

The album was co-produced in Montevideo by longtime collaborator Fernando Rosa, who gathered a variety of Uruguay's world-class jazz, classical and tango musicians to create a new-old pop sound flavored with the tough tenderness of 1930s tango, vaudeville cabaret and Hot Club jazz. Toronto producer David Travers-Smith oversaw the Canadian and Uruguayan tracking, which included helping hands by members of Toronto's lively Jazz Manouche community. String of Pearls will be available on all music services. 

Cascading vibraphones, snappy brush drums, brisk guitar chops and Chvostek’s richly nuanced vocals grace the album’s opening “Je t'ai vue hier soir” (I Saw You Last Night), setting the tone for un melange sonique that swirls folk, cabaret, classical and Chvostek’s own Slavic musical roots with vintage swing-jazz. The title track’s Django-esque acoustic guitar, wailing clarinet and Chvostek’s multitracked Andrews Sisters-style choral backing make for ultra-bouncy instrumental textures that play lightly off the song’s somewhat weightier lyrical content. 

“‘String of Pearls’ is about getting through difficult things, defiantly transforming them and coming out on top,” says Chvostek (chuh-VOSS-tek). “It’s a pep talk to a self that’s struggling through difficulty, a reminder that the struggle can make beauty, too.”