Artist: Mia Doi Todd
Album: Cosmic Ocean Ship
Label: City Zen Records/Virtual Label
Catalog #: CTZ-CD-5/CTZ-LP-5
Release date: May 17, 2011
Mia’s ninth album, Cosmic Ocean Ship, was chosen by the New York Times as one of the top ten albums of 2011. It was produced by Jonathan Wilson. Recorded in Los Angeles to analog two-inch tape, the album has a warmth and depth that showcases Mia’s beautiful, powerful, unique, and at times delicate voice.
Inspired by interstellar journeys, reflective encounters with friends, and explorations of forest, beach, jungle, desert, and city in Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, France, and India, Mia searched deep within to communicate a new perspective for Cosmic Ocean Ship – one that transports the listener into the ecstatic radiance of intimate Love, and one that is yearning with an overall optimistic vision for the future of Planet Earth and the human experience. In reaction against the political, economic, and environmental upheaval and devastation of the last decade, Mia felt compelled as an artist to create something for our time that focuses on beauty, joy, light, and Love.
The whole record was tracked in just over 4 days, with Gabe Noel on bass, Andres Renteria on percussion, Adam MacDougall on keys and Jonathan Wilson both engineering and rotating on various instruments. Most of the songs were recorded live with the band all playing together and Mia playing and singing in the same room. Listening to Cosmic Ocean Ship, one hears the sweet nuanced relationship between the room, the tubes, the weathered circuitry, and the collective energy in the sessions. There’s a real magic captured on tape here.
In addition to the original compositions that make up the majority of Cosmic Ocean Ship, Mia covers the classic lament “Gracias a la Vida” written by Chilean Folk artist Violeta Parra in 1966, and “Canto de Iemanjá,” the Afro Samba tribute to the great Orisha of the Ocean, by Baden Powell and Vinícius de Moraes.
Track listing:
1. Paraty
2. My Baby Lives in Paris
3. Under the Sun
4. Skipping Stones
5. Summer Lover
6. La Havana
7. Canto de Iemanjá (Baden Powell/Vinícius de Moraes)
8. The Rising Tide
9. All My City
10. Gracias a la Vida (Violeta Parra)