Ari Hest
Friday March 4, 2011
Doors at 7:30pm
the Ark in Ann Arbor
Tickets $15
Friday March 4, 2011
Doors at 7:30pm
the Ark in Ann Arbor
Tickets $15
The release of Sunset Over Hope Street on March 1, 2011 via Downtown Records’ Mercer Street imprint marks Ari Hest's first full-length album of new material in four years. That’s not to say he hasn’t been busy in the years in between.
After releasing The Break-In on Columbia Records in 2007, Ari decided it was time to take more creative control over his music and parted ways with his label. Utilizing all the technology available to him, in 2008 he launched his highly successful 52 project, a web based subscription service that found him writing, recording, and releasing a new song every Monday for an entire year. For those keeping track, that’s 52 new songs in 52 weeks! Performing Songwriter called these songs “high-caliber and heartfelt.” At the end of the year, the subscribers were asked to vote for their 12 favorite songs from the project and the ones that got the most votes were then reworked and digitally released in the form of the album Twelve Mondays in early 2009.
52 helped Ari explore different genres and experiment with new instrumentation. And even with 40 unreleased songs under his belt after the release of Twelve Mondays, Ari kept on writing and experimenting. The end result, Sunset Over Hope Street, is a slight departure from his previous work. Ari expressed his self-challenging nature by taking his guitar parts and seeing if another lead instrument, like a piano, could take the guitar's place. The album is also awash with a variety of string arrangements and unique percussion parts.