Victor E.
Biography
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Victor E.'s debut album, The Meditations, generated college radio interest throughout the U.S. and Canada, and was featured on "Morning Becomes Eclectic" on Los Angeles' KCRW. Victor E. wrote all the songs, played most of the parts, and co-produced the entire album with a little outside help. Critically acclaimed director Lisanne Skyler shot an action-packed music video for standout track "Meditation No. 6," which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, hit PowerPlay's Top 20 in the U.S., and has been seen by nearly 46 million viewers in over 40 states on music video shows nationwide." But as Victor E. sings on The Meditations, his quietly moving, personal and soulful debut, "And it took a long time for me; I'll never know why..." |
Rewind: False Starts
Victor Ernesto was classically trained in voice, flute, keyboards,
composition, and movement at New York's Manhattan School of Music. He was signed
to Polygram as a solo teen artist in the late ’80s for a dance record that was
mercifully shelved and never released. Victor later formed the band Inviolate,
which regularly played to sold-out audiences around New York opening up for
soul stars like platinum-plus selling Zhané and Roy Ayers, and cutting-edge
artists like Joi and Brooklyn Funk Essentials. Inviolate released The
EP on the now-defunct Cargo Music, which received critical acclaim and substantial
non-commercial radio airplay. With The
Meditations, Victor E. returns in his first full-length solo effort mixing
orchestral pop, bossa nova, and drum & bass. Assisting on production are
Warren Rosenstein of The Jazzhole, and drum-and-bass turntable whiz NovaSoulo.
Streaming audio/video samples from The
Meditations available.
"It’s a concept album: a collection of nine
‘meditations’ in all, of the things I needed to tell myself... that helped get
me out of a dark place a few years ago... which is right about where the album
starts. By the time it’s over, you’ve been on quite a trip. Recovering from
a loss or a crisis, like grieving a death, has been compared to dark clouds
slowly lifting, a darkness giving way to understanding. Perhaps it’s because
getting there can be such an alienating, uphill process, its subject matter
does not easily lend itself to musical adaptation. I thought I’d give it a try
- not to profess that I have any easy answers - but at least to offer my version
of events the way I saw them. The food for thought that I had trouble finding
when I needed it most. And so I came up with my own ‘Meditations.’ The nine
things I had to reflect upon to find my own way out of the very dark place I
found myself in at the start of my 29th year. A musical journey of sorts, and
also the old narrative journey of rebirth: a story launched by the ending of
a relationship is woven with the passages of morning becoming evening, of a
seed blossoming into a flower, of that darkness giving way to understanding,
and ultimately of loss yielding to recovery. For myself, this ‘passage’ represented
nothing less than my own coming of age. ‘And it took a long time for me, I’ll
never know why...’"
New Video
The album's first music video, "Meditation No. 6," is more of a short action film where Metropolis meets The Wiz meets Roller Boogie, shot on location last summer in Los Angeles by indie director Lisanne Skyler. To view the entire video (4:24), visit www.ifilm.com. Skyler was nominated for the Someone to Watch Spirit Award, for her critically acclaimed feature Getting to Know You, starring Bebe Neuwirth, Mary McCormack, and Chris Noth. The music video made its film festival premiere in the U.S. at IFP's Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2003. It hit Powerplay's Top 20 for the weeks ending 11/15 through 12/6. The total potential reach for all shows airing the video is nearing 46 million viewers on cable TV in over 40 states and in clubs through January 2004.
Re-Rewind: Other Personas
Victor
Ernesto grew up in New York, the son of Argentinian parents who dreamed their
musical son would someday become a doctor. Victor instead began his career as
an actor, and modeled in London. He has acted in several films: beginning as
Doris Finsecker’s brother in Alan Parker’s blockbuster Fame (MGM, 1980),
through his string of starring roles with indie hero director Jon
Moritsugu. Their 12-year collaboration has ranged from the nationally-aired
PBS Television TV Families, to their new award-winning tragic-comedy
film Scumrock, Best Feature Film winner of both the New York and
Chicago Underground Film Festivals.
for immediate release
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