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AM & Shawn Lee

La Musique Numerique (French for Digital Music) is the second full-length record from Los Angeles/ London electro soul duo AM & Shawn Lee. Drawing heavily on late 70's French library, 80's Italo Disco and Sleng Teng dancehall riddims, La Musique Numerique pays homage to the beginnings of the digital realm often employing recording equipment from the era (Simmons drums, period drum machines and first generation digital effects). Themes of the album address new love (Good Blood), addiction (Automatic) and worldwide economic bitterness (Two Times, Suffer Like Me). "There is a definite charm to those early 80's digital effects, a certain crustiness...AM and myself were riding a magic carpet made by Casio circa 1981" says Lee. Made in between touring their debut album (Celestial Electric released on ESL Musc), La Musique Numerique has a more focused sound...a more singular vision. "The album is both fun and quirky and just happened to be where we both were at the time", says AM. "There was no discussion of direction. We seemed to be symmetrical in what we were both responding to musically." The Clash, early Scritti Politti, Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club, Sly & Robbie and of course a healthy dose of soundtrack and library music of the same period.”

Spring 2013, the sea-crossed duo are making their debut on Park The Van Records with La Musique Numerique (Digipack/ Vinyl). PTV is a boutique label known for a catalog of great records from Dr. Dog, Generationals, and The Spinto Band to Floating Action and He’s My Brother She’s My Sister. AM & Shawn Lee met up in London, and later in L.A., where AM played guitar on a series of live gigs with Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra. As Lee recalls, "During that L.A. trip, we listened to a lot of music together and bonded over our mutual love of vintage French and Italian library and film music and nuggets from the Finders Keepers record label. I suggested that we make an album together, and the rest is history." Celestial Electric, the pair’s debut album, was an instant head turner and not only got critics excited, but also seemed to find it’s way into just about every deep cut record store across the world (you know, the one’s that don’t ever stock new releases.)
AM & Shawn Lee spent most of 2012 touring Celestial Electric in the U.S. and Europe to great reviews, and also performed at festivals in Holland, France, and the U.S. with Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival, St. Paul’s River’s Edge, Holland’s Motel Mozaique, and France’s Le Printemps De Bourges. Seattle Weekly describes them as “one of the best live bands of the year” and KEXP says AM & Shawn Lee’s music, “make even the most hardened hipsters bob their head.”
AM & Shawn ‘s tune “Somebody Like You” went to #5 at Radio Nova which inspired three 2012 visits to France with performances at Radio Nova’s Les Nuits De Zebres event for 1800 people, headlining performances at Nouveau Casino and David Lynch’s Club Silencio, an instore at Gilbert, and a festival appearance at Le Printemps de Bourges. AM has also supported French artists AIR and Charlotte Gainsbourg in the South of France, North America and Canada.
New Orleans-bred, L.A.-based tunesmith AM has won widespread acclaim by merging pop, soul, folk, R&B and psychedelia into highly personalized songcraft.. He has released several albums on various labels (including Future Sons & Daughters on Filter US Recordings), he spent the last few years out on the road touring with AIR, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Josh Rouse and legendary Brazilian tropicalia icon Caetano Veloso. His music has been heard on TV shows such as Greys Anatomy, Teen Mom, Big Love, Royal Pains, Castle, Criminal Minds, and Friday Night Lights.
Kansas-born, London-based composer/producer/instrumentalist Shawn Lee has established a reputation as a mischievous sonic innovator and one of the most sampled artists in Hip Hop, releasing more than twenty genre-spanning albums of his original material, usually as Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra. He has recorded projects with artists such as Clutchy Hopkins, Saint Etienne, Arthur Verocai, Greyboy, Coldcut, Tony Joe White, Darondo, Money Mark and Tommy Guerrero and opened for bands such as Phoenix, Sigur Ros, Kings Of Convenience, and Bonnie Prince Billy. His music has been heard on television shows such as Entourage, CSI, Lost, and Nip/Tuck, and Desperate Housewives. He is an award winning video game music composer and winner of the award for best original music for the video game “Bully” by Gamespot and nominated for best original score from Spike VGA (video game awards).http://amandshawnlee.com

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