Nomadic multi-instrumentalist and singer Justin Grounds' music has such a timeless, mystical quality that it is no surprise that his own life has taken a similarly wild and romantic road. Born into a family of intellectuals, priests and hippies, his musical education was unorthadox and unique, collecting instruments from a very early age, foraging ideas from classical sonatas to drum'n'bass and funk grooves, setting his own feet and voice on its own solitary path.
Leaving home (who knows where that ever was?) and packing his bags with a laptop, some mics and a handful of ideas, he made the 2006 record 'Francesco' on a long journey around the world, performing and recording in some of the most extraordinary places, from a Hawaiian monastary to a housing project in downtown Vancouver. The album was released by Creative Vibes Records and met critical praise both in Australia and the UK, with the Herald Sun newspaper calling Grounds a ‘vagabond arrived at a magical musical place’, and naming the album a ‘rare hidden gem’ of 2006. Taking his vibrant and ever evolving live show on the road for a year after the release, Grounds paired his unique voice with a richly woven texture of live loops and layers of his violins and guitars (sometimes beaten into rhythms), delivering one-off performances full of the dark romanticism and spiritual grit of his songs.
2008 saw the release of the darker electro-acoustic record 'Love is Strong as Death'. This album, with its deeply existential lyrical style, brought Grounds' musical dynamic to an even greater level of depth; fusing his unusual use of instrumentation together with his love of experimenting with technology, seamlessly weaving subtle layers of analog and digital textures with strings, guitars, wineglasses and percussion. Soaring above these layers are the songs, deeply emotive and mystical, at times fragile and romantic, at times rugged and burnished. With tours to support the record in Australia, the USA, the UK and Ireland , Grounds finely tuned his experimental stage show, building his own electronic live loop setup to include laptop, analog synth, viola and thumb piano, and gathered more critical acclaim.
Grounds now lives and works in Inchydoney, West Cork, Ireland and tours in the UK, Ireland and Canada. June 2009 sees the release of the live album ‘Hold onto your Soul’, recorded at the legendary De Barra’s of Clonakilty. He is working on a new record in a new style, combining more electronic sounds with strings, acoustic instruments and ambient recordings., which hopes to be released on vinyl and download later in the year.
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