JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN x TONY ALLEN x DAVE OKUMU RELEASE "THE SOLUTION IS RESTLESS"

JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN, TONY ALLEN & DAVE OKUMU RELEASE JOINT ALBUM THE SOLUTION IS RESTLESS FEATURES PREVIOUSLY RELEASED SINGLES “TAKE ME TO YOU LEADER” AND “GEOMETRY OF YOU” DOWNLOAD/STREAM HERE

EARLY PRESS ON THE SOLUTION IS RESTLESS This is breathtakingly good music - UNCUT   full of meditative beauty…ravishing and lovelorn - MOJO   a voice so wondrous and moving that it makes everyone else’s seem ordinary and mundane -  THE GUARDIAN   Beautiful - Q    The coolest woman in pop - THE TIMES   Joan As Police Woman is one of the 21st century’s best musicians - THE ECONOMIST Preposterously great music - ☆☆☆☆☆ - RECORD COLLECTOR  Riveting - 8/10  UNCUT The Solution Is Restless is a joint album written and recorded by Joan As Police Woman, Dave Okumu of The Invisible and legendary drummer Tony Allen shortly before he passed away.  Damon Albarn also features on the record which is out now via PIAS. Joan As Poloice Woman has been confirmed to play at TONY ALLEN: A RETROSPECTIVE, Royal Festival Hall, London, November 13th 2021. The album title, The Solution Is Restless, is a lyric from one of the songs, “Geometry Of You,” which muses on the numerical perfection of numbers and geometry applied to a person’s body, heart, and mind. "Rather than orchestrate an elaborate seduction of a lover, I simply ask them what they want. The answer is my poetic understanding of quantum theory: the solution is restless. The solution to caress a person’s heart is final and fluid, different on a different day, constantly changing." Speaking on the album, Joan Wasser (aka Joan As Police Woman) says, "Damon Albarn introduced me to Afrobeat legend, Tony Allen, at the Africa Express event “The Circus” in London in 2019.  Tony and I played Nina Simone's I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free and made a pact to record together in the future. In November of that year, our pact was realized. My old friend and fierce musician Dave Okumu joined Tony and me in a Parisian studio, where we improvised, untethered by form or tempo. I left with the tapes without knowing exactly how I’d use them.  In April I lost a beloved mentor, Hal Willner. Hal created beautiful and unlikely collaborations among artists. Hal appointed me Musical Director of Hal’s collaboration on Neil Young’s songbook in 2004 (Prospect Park) and 2011 (Winter Olympics Vancouver). Grieving Hal’s death, I began creating songs from the Parisian improvisations, only to learn of Tony’s passing while in the studio. As my world became undone, I focused on creating the new album from the Paris collaboration. This production style danced in my mind for years. The songs are composed in various ways. For some, I used only a one-bar drum loop; for others I created blueprints around basic A/B sections we had improvised. I used the source material in every way possible. The pandemic allowed me to explore and experiment for months in my home studio.  ‘Get My Bearings’, which features Damon Albarn on vocals, was written shortly after Tony’s death. It’s an evocation of the incredibly thin membrane between life and death. The idea of “mysticism” is the only way to describe it. My intellect cannot place death. It’s what floats beyond where the music resides.”   Joan Wasser (Joan As Police Woman) followed stints with Anohni’s ensemble (formerly Antony & The Johnsons) and Rufus Wainwright with the release of her debut album in 2006, Real Life. The album won “Best Rock and Pop Album,” at the Independent Music Awards. Her second album, To Survive, was chosen in 2008, as one of Q Magazine’s, “Albums of the Year.” Similar praise was heaped on subsequent albums, 2011’s The Deep Field, 2014’s The Classic and perhaps her most rapturously received album to date, 2018’s Damned Devotion. Over the last two years she has written and recorded with Damon Albarn for the Gorillaz Song Machine album - listen to ‘Simplicity’ HERE - released her second album of covers (Cover Two) and her first live album, Live. She also appeared on the Afel Bocoum album Lindé (World Circuit). In January 2021 Joan was hired by NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at Tisch as a mentor. Tony Allen was the drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti’s band Africa '70 from 1968 to 1979, and was one of the primary co-founders of the genre of Afrobeat. Fela once stated that, "without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat” and he was described by Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived". Besides many other musical milestones and collaborations, in recent years Tony teamed up with Damon Albarn, Paul Simonon and Simon Tong to form The Good, the Bad & the Queen. Dave Okumu is best known for fronting the Mercury Music Prize band The Invisible and his recent album Knopperz STREAM / DOWNLOAD THE SOLUTION IS RESTLESS   TOUR TICKETS HERE   3.29.22 Union Chapel London 3.30.22 St George's Church Brighton 3.31.22 Komedia Bath 4.1.22 Junction Cambridge 4.3.22 The Wardrobe Leeds 4.4.22 King Tuts Wah Wah Hut Glasgow 4.5.22 The Black Box Belfast 4.7.22 Róisín Dubh Galway 4.8.22 Dolans Warehouse Limerick  4.9.22 St. Lukes Cork 4.10.22 Pepper Canister Church Dublin 4.11.22 Pepper Canister Church Dublin 

PHOTO CREDIT: Giles Clement joanaspolicewoman.com piasrecordings.com