SO SHE HOWLS

GRAMMY®-Winning
BEST NEW AGE, AMBIENT OR CHANT ALBUM

An Autobiographical Album Chronicling Carla Patullo's Triumph Over Grief and Her Pursuit of Adventure, Following a Near-death Experience

AVAILABLE NOW
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Composed by and performed by Carla Patullo featuring GRAMMY®-winning vocal ensemble Tonality (Bjork) led by Alexander Lloyd Blake, the GRAMMY®-winning Scorchio Quartet (Philip Glass), comprised of Martha Mooke (David Bowie), Lorenza Ponce (The Chicks), Leah Collof (Trey Anastasio), and Frederika Krier (Sly and the Family Stone), and GRAMMY® Award Winner Lili Haydn (Opium Moon)

Engineered by James Frazee, Carla Patullo, and Norvin Tu-Wang. Mixed and Mastered by GRAMMY® Award Winner Daniel Kresco

“The healing that unfolds through the tracks is phenomenal … her musical narrative will assist everyone’s journey from darkness to light and from death to immortality.”
- New Music Alert

GRAMMY®-Winning Composer and Artist Carla Patullo Releases Album, “SO SHE HOWLS” After Near Death Experience

Carla Patullo’s latest album, SO SHE HOWLS, is a raw musical journey about grief, healing, and recovery following a life-changing confrontation with death.

With SO SHE HOWLS, Patullo creates a blend of howling vocals, orchestral swells, and electronic pulses, as well as field-recorded sounds from the natural and the machine worlds. Natural elements like rain and wind were field recorded and blended into the tracks ‘So She Howls’ and ‘To Forest Scenes,’ which features an emotionally charged solo by Lorenza Ponce. Whereas other tracks such as ‘Machine Dreams’ implement manmade-like elements such as hospital radiation machinery, urban traffic sounds, and killer electric viola by Martha Mooke. In several tracks, the strong and open-hearted voices of the choir Tonality marry with Patullo’s vulnerable and intimate vocals to create intricately sculpted soundscapes, each track transporting the listener into an immersive new mind-state, evolving from hauntingly beautiful lullabies into uplifting anthems of recovery and resilience.

The first few tracks in the album such as ‘If You Listen’ and ‘So She Howls’ are hypnotic and haunting as they tell the earlier part of the story, filled with grief, fear, and the unknown abyss of death. Their darkness, though, is expressed with a beauty and a power that cuts to the soul and echoes the despair in humanity. In contrast, the last two tracks, ‘Earth’ and ‘And Love’ most strongly embody the concepts of healing and adventure. Especially ‘And Love,’ which recounts the moments of being surrounded by different loved ones, ghostly figures, like a montage of loves flashing before her eyes. In these moments, and also when Carla gave grace to her healing body, she was able to push forward, move beyond grief, and to ultimately, seek adventure. And it is no coincidence that the vibrant violinist Lili Haydn is featured on this last track. Her violin solos are like wings, direct representations of this sense of adventure, strength, and openness to living life and shucking fear to the side. Overall, SO SHE HOWLS creates a force that will open any cynical heart with its vulnerable, raw, haunting, hopeful, and layered musical story.

photo GALLERY

ABOUT CARLA

As a GRAMMY®-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist, Carla Patullo is best known for her music that blends lush acoustics with layered vocals and experimental electronics. Her music strives to connect with the deep human emotions that are found in moments of grief, healing, redemption, and joy. Carla also composes music for film, and her recent projects include the Disney+ film Maxine starring Margaret Cho and directed by Niki Ang; Charlotte Hamblin’s Everybody Dies Sometimes, which premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival; My Name Is Maria De Jesus, an HBO Latino film; the IDA shortlisted documentary Lotte that Silhouette Girl; and an in-the-works project called Bitterroot, a beautiful new film about the Hmong community. As her body of film work shows, Patullo is passionate about writing music that supports and advances inclusion for women, immigrants, and the LGBTQ+ community. Read more here: www.carlapatullo.com/about

FEATURED MUSICIANS

TONALITY

Tonality is a vocal ensemble whose mission is to deliver authentic stories through voice and body to incite change, understanding, and dialogue. Founder and Artistic Director Alexander Lloyd Blake created Tonality with the intention of connecting people with our shared humanity through song.

ALEXANDER LLOYD BLAKE (TONALITY)

Dr. Alexander Lloyd Blake works as a conductor, composer/arranger, vocal contractor, singer, and music activist. Blake is the Founding Artistic Director of Tonality, an award-winning choral ensemble focused on spreading a message of unity, peace, and social justice through a culturally diverse choral setting. He also serves as the Choir Director at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) and as a Principal Associate Conductor of the National Children’s Chorus.

SCORCHIO QUARTET

Under Mooke’s direction, the Scorchio string quartet performs on several SO SHE HOWLS tracks. Hailed as a cutting-edge electro-acoustic string quartet known for its artistry and eclecticism, Scorchio has performed with David Bowie, Philip Glass, Smith, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Flaming Lips, Vampire Weekend, Regina Spektor, David Byrne and many others. Scorchio members are founding violist Martha Mooke, violinists Amy Kimball and Rachel Golub and cellist Leah Coloff. 

MARTHA MOOKE (SCORCHIO QUARTET, VIOLA, MUSIC DIRECTOR)

SO SHE HOWLS features acoustic and electric viola solos by Martha Mooke, acclaimed for her electrifying performances and compositions. She is a pioneering electric violist and collaborator with DAVID BOWIE, PHILIP GLASS, and LAURIE ANDERSON, to name a few. She transcends musical boundaries, enhancing classical training with extended techniques, technology and improvisation.

LORENZA PONCE (SCORCHIO QUARTET, VIOLIN I)

Lorenza Ponce, is a violinist, composer, vocalist, arranger and beekeeper. She has recorded 6 solo records and has toured with The Dixie Chicks, Sheryl Crow, Sam Smith, Dolly Parton, Hall and Oates, Ben Fold’s Five, Kitaro, Bon Jovi, and others. Lorenza has also performed alongside many artists including Emmylou Harris, Rita Wilson, Ray LaMontagne, Pearl Jam, Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Nicks, Cyndi Lauper, The Zombies, Neil Young, and numerous artists at the Tibet House Benefit concerts with the Scorchio String Quartet. Her string arrangements can be heard on albums by The Dixie Chicks, including their No. one hit, “Landslide”, Sheryl Crow, Bon Jovi, “Bon Jovi MTV, Unplugged”, among many others. Lorenza runs the Our Wee Farm Pollinator Sanctuary in New Windsor, Maryland - a 37 acre organic farm dedicated to providing safe habitat for our endangered pollinators. Please visit www.lorenzaponce.com for more info.

LEAH COLOFF (SCORCHIO QUARTET, CELLO)

Leah Coloff is described by The New York Times as “a combination of artful angularity and a rock-inflected assertiveness.” Raised in the Pacific Northwest, her classical roots collide with 70’s rock and a pioneer spirit creating her self-identified style, CLUNK (Classical + Punk) with songs and works that are honest, sensual, funny, brutal, pissed-off, beautiful, and chilly sweet. In addition to her personal creations, Leah is a professional cellist. She can be heard on the Grammy-nominated Oklahoma! cast Recording. And in the classical realm, Leah’s focus is working with contemporary living composers including Philip Glass, Ted Hearne, Joel Thome, Sean Friar, and Michael Gordon.

FREDERIKA KRIER (SCORCHIO QUARTET, VIOLIN II)

Born in Timisoara/Romania, Krier grew up playing many different music styles (folk, gypsy swing, funk, soul, latin, and hard rock), and at the age of 18, she discovered the jazz world at a workshop with jazz violinist Jörg Widmoser. She then began studying ethnomusicology and now leads her own bands (Frederika Krier Quartett/Berlin and Molecular Vibrations/NYC) and serves as coleader of the bands Laghima and "kus& Rika.”

LILI HAYDN (OPIUM MOON)

The album also features Lili Haydn, whose six critically acclaimed major label recordings as a solo artist have been NPR favorites, and her legendary collaborations include everyone from Herbie Hancock, Sting, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, the LA Philharmonic, and George Clinton's P-Funk All Stars to name a few. Lili is a Grammy award-winning artist and a lifelong activist, and believes music and stories have the power to heal and uplift … important now more than ever.

ENGINEERS

DANIEL KRESCO (Mixing + Mastering Engineer)

Daniel Kresco is a GRAMMY Award-winning mixing, mastering, and recording engineer. Some of his credits include the film scores The Joker, 12 Years A Slave, and Kung Fu Panda.

JAMES FRAZEE (Recording Engineer)

James Frazee is a producer, engineer, mixer, and multi-instrumentalist with over fifteen years of experience recording music in the NYC area, and has been nominated for several Grammys for his engineering and mixing work.

MESSAGE FROM CARLA:

In writing this album, I was going through the deepest struggle of my life, and I chronicled the entire experience as I went through it. As I recorded the tracks, I relived the experience, and even embraced it, which led to a process of re-membering, full of so much gratitude that I landed safely on the other side.

My earliest memories of music were of my Mom and my Nonna, who both immigrated from Italy, singing their small-town folk songs to my sister, my brother, and me. These songs transported us to a different time and place, and they also connected us to each other and to our ancestors. Many of the melodies and vocal lines that you hear on this album were recorded in the moment, while I worked through my struggle to survive. They are raw, and rather than being focused on technicalities, I chose to preserve the raw emotions that I captured in those sometimes difficult, and other times joyous moments.

When I was 25, my mom passed away suddenly in a car accident. That night, she was driving home from my apartment where we had cooked dinner together. So on top of all the pain and shock, I also struggled with the guilt of her visiting me that night. It was very hard to process, took a long time, and is still ongoing. Fast forward many years later, and I had my own brush with death. Fortunately, I ended up being okay, but it was quite a scare and definitely shifted my mindset about life. It was a health scare, and while I was going through it, my own mortality was a constant weight. I felt trapped in a tunnel, unable to escape the path in front of me. I needed to find a way to be present and to not sink into a hole. So I began writing this album as a way to cope with the anxiety I was feeling. I tried to focus on gratitude, which I have to admit, is pretty darn powerful! I also reconnected with my mom in a profound way. I recognized the gift of my memories of her and the strength that she instilled in me, deep in my core. That surrounded me and led me forward. 

As soon as I felt a sense of the album as a whole, I began thinking about my collaborators. I was searching for the right energy. As I began orchestrating, I reached out to the performers and explained what the album was about and where I was coming from on a personal level. I feel very grateful, because they were all willing to pour their souls into the music with me (grief is clearly universal), and I really wanted to bring them into the story and give them each space for their unique voices.

The Scorchio Quartet is an all-woman string quartet led by Martha Mooke, an acoustic and electric violist, a pioneer really for the electric viola. I had been wanting to work with her for years and this album was the perfect fit. The group (which also includes Lorenza Ponce, Frederika Krier, and Leah Collof) performed at the Tibetan House concerts with Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson the year before, and I knew they could get into the mental space surrounding healing. Lorenza Ponce and Leah Coloff both gave hauntingly spectacular solos. I told Lorenza that she needed to get lost in the forest on the track ‘Forest Scenes’, and she did that in the most mesmerizing way.

As far as a chorus, I had been following the vocal ensemble Tonality for a while, and I thought they could bring this unity and warmth to the album to connect it all together. We recorded them at my studio here in LA called The Soundry. Alexander Lloyd Blake conducted them, and their combined voices created the wonderful texture and sculpted the sound that I was hoping for.

And finally, I’m a big fan of Lili Haydn and love how soulful and expressive she is. I thought she could provide me with wings to emotionally get over to the other side of trauma in the last couple of tracks ‘Earth’ and ‘And Love.’ I gave Lili music, but also told her to add her personal compositional touch, and on the track ‘And Love,’ you can feel her leaving the road map and following her own intuition and creating a sense of adventure. I have had personal albums before, but this album tracks my journey through one of the toughest years in my life. And I just have so much gratitude towards the players for sharing their energy with me.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Kaytee Long Becker
303.619.8571
kaytee@diyprgroup.com