Album Notes

BIO:
Fearless honesty, poignant lyricism and powerful melodies are the textures used to weave Allison Invention’s (formerly Allison Tartalia) unforgettable music. Compelling and expressive performances have charmed and thrilled audiences throughout the country. Allison’s Invention’s new adult-alternative project, “Sweet and Vicious,” is a lush melodramatic pop EP. The songs feature Allison on piano and a variety of vintage keyboards. Strings and horns help to create the atmospheric soundscape. “Sweet and Vicious,” proves that Allison’s Invention is ready to bring her music and her career to new heights.

A staple on the New York music scene, this Astoria based artist is no stranger to accolades and applause. Allison was recently nominated for an Emmy alongside fellow composers for the music that they created for the documentary 5,000 Miles From Home. Her debut CD, "Ready," was enthusiastically greeted by critics and tracks from the album received airplay from coast to coast. Allison was a songwriting finalist in last years Solarfest and at the Connecticut Folk Festival, and the Billboard and John Lennon Songwriting Contests have also recognized her work. Allison has been composer/arranger for two original musicals, “Birds on Fire” and “1918: A House Divided” (book and lyrics by award-winning playwright Barbara Kahn). Both shows were produced by the Pulitzer Prize-winning community cultural center, Theater for the New City.

On "Sweet and Vicious'” Allison’s Invention digs deeply into her personal history, exposing failed relationships and family struggles. In the title track, Allison talks openly about the complexities of relationships with men “until I’ve tasted your poison, I shall have no peace.” Other songs explore the pressures of honing art in the concrete jungle, as well as how Allison coped following her mother's cancer diagnosis -- including the weight of becoming her mother’s caretaker; the unraveling of her relationship with her boyfriend during that trying time; and the untimely death of her mother, who was also Allison’s best friend and confidante. You hear in her words the attempt to compartmentalize these situations in order to deal with the pain. You empathize in “Ran”, wanting to reach out and help Allison find her way through this maze of loss and muddled emotion. And in the final chapter you feel a pure release and peace at Allison’s realization “It’s just a body. It’s just a body. It isn’t her.” On this project Allison’s Invention fills a void in the music industry. Allison is a woman who knows that every line is well earned war paint. We are given a space in which to reflect, grow, and speak our own truths from a place of learned confidence, insight and serenity. Allison’s Invention gives us the permission to fall, pick ourselves up and start all over again. “Sweet and Vicious” is a project that has the transcendent depth to put Allison’s Invention on the map.




PRESS:
“Wonder of wonders, this native New Yorker's debut CD sounds legitimately more jazzy than folky---smack-dab in the Laura Nyro/Ricki Lee Jones/Sophie B. Hawkins.”
- Chuck Eddy, The Village Voice

“A singer with a sultry voice.”
-Marc Santora, The New York Times

“Trying to pin down Emmy-nominee Allison Tartalia to one genre is like trying to capture a single atom in your hand. As a solo artist, she has been known to fuse jazz, rock, folk and more – sometimes all within the same song. She is brutally honest about her life; her songs, thematically similar to Aimee Mann’s, are downtrodden yet still possess a sardonic wit. You may just get to know her better while you watch her bare her soul onstage.”
- Brett Ackerman, Beacon Pass

"Allison Tartalia doesn’t fit comfortably in any particular genre and that’s fine with her. She’s translated her Classical piano training into a cohesive style that incorporates Chamber Pop, Folk, Pop and Jazz, and transcends the typical constraints of the singer/songwriter classification. She’s recorded her own work, (her 2005 debut Ready, her imminent EP, Sweet and Vicious), guested on other people’s albums (including Ohio’s own Rhonda Everitt in her pale beneath the blue project) and scored musical theater productions and film documentaries. Whatever inner beat you groove to, Allison Tartalia will find a way to tap into it and win your love in the bargain. Dig it: Tori Amos and Rickie Lee Jones play Keith Emerson's spinning piano at a Laura Nyro tribute while Kate Bush and Rufus Wainwright make shadow puppets underneath."
- Brian Baker, Cincinnati CityBeat

“The greater music [industry] may be continuing to founder, but that's not stopping great from music from being made. Allison Tartalia's Sweet and Vicious is proof of that. It gives me hope for the future.”
– Mark Saleski, Something Else Reviews

“The label "singer-songwriter" doesn't fully grasp Allison Tartalia's worldly sound. It's not just guitars and emotional lyrics here. You'll hear a full range of eclectic noise during Tartalia's set at Chicks Rockfest this weekend - jazzy piano, rich percussion and clever lyrics delivered in the singer's commanding voice. Singer-songwriters are always more interesting when they add something extra - and Tartalia's got plenty of extras in her diverse sound.”
- Kari Wethington, CinWeekly