An exciting day: Sassafrass is launching a Kickstarter to support Sundown: Whispers of Ragnarok! We have some really exciting plans for Balticon and for the CD (period-accurate costumes, eco-friendly packaging, filming the play to make a DVD), and we need your help to make them happen. This is our first time trying out something like this and we have high hopes that with our fans backing us up through Kickstarter, our most ambitious project yet can get off the ground. Check out our project page and preorder your CD and DVD now!

You can support The Sundown Project at any level!  We have exciting ways to say thank you:

• For just $1 or more we will thank you personally on the Contributors page of our website, and at higher levels we will also thank you in the CD and DVD.
• For just $10, you can pre-order a digital download of the finished album, while for $25 you can pre-order the CD itself, or for $50 the CD and DVD.
• For those who pledge more, we have such exciting items as a poster with a beautiful illustration of the Norse Cosmos produced by comics artist friend Rob Snyder, another poster with images from the International Space Station celebrating our space exploration song “Somebody Will“, a libretto, and bound collections of our sheet music.
• Exclusive thank-you items include a certificate with your name in Runes, and, at high levels, advanced digital access to the tracks as we finish them, before the CD is released.
• We also have exciting stretch goals planned!

“Your name in Runes.” One of our ways of saying thank-you to our Kickstarter backers.

We have uploaded a lot of new music samples to go with the Kickstarter, as well as lots of new info about the Sundown Project.  Both on the Kickstarter page and on our new main page you can hear streaming samples of the new recording of My Brother My Enemy, which demonstrates our new recording tech, plus the new Futhark Song and a sample of the finale of the cycle, Longer in Stories than Stone.  Our info page about the Play also has new recordings of the Character Themes, and you can hear all the new samples on the Sundown Preview digital album.

For more information, check out our Kickstarter page, and thank you for helping us bring Ragnarok to life!

But there’s even more news: Three New Digital Releases!

To replace our retired albums, Sassafrass has three new online albums available through Bandcamp.

These are the results of our efforts to clean up our old sound, and reorganize our music, new and old, to give people the best taste of the new improved sound quality our new recording and editing techniques can produce.  We have reorganized our old tracks, taken down a lot of the old and rough ones, and consolidated the cleaner ones into three new collections:

• Sundown: Whispers of Ragnarok – Preview is our way of sharing what we have of the still-in-progress Sundown Norse Myth Song Cycle.  It contains the final recordings of “My Brother, My Enemy” and both versions of “The Futhark Song” (the sweet one and a new eerie modal arrangement), just as they will appear on the final CD.  It also contains recordings of the seven Character Themes which recur throughout the song cycle, letting you spot the influence of each character in the larger pieces.  As a final bonus, it contains a sample of the six-part finale piece “Longer in Stories than Stone” which is still in production, plus it comes with downloadable PDFs including a lyrics sheet for “My Brother, My Enemy,” one for “The Futhark Song” featuring the original runic characters, and the sheet music for the Character Themes.
• Make Them All Real collects the best tracks from our past albums, digitally remastered by our new sound editors.  They have been re-balanced for volume, filtered for improved microphone quality, and have enhanced clarity of sound and lyrics.  In addition to such favorites as “Somebody Will” and “Fall”, this collection contains a new recording of one of our Norse pieces, the solo version of “A New World (Frigg’s Song), which will appear as a trio on the finished Sundown CD.  As a bonus, the complete album purchase comes with downloadable PDFs of the lyrics sheets with guitar parts for “Somebody Will” and “Threadbare Dragon,” formatted to help you learn and perform them.
• Remnants and Alternates collects favorite rougher takes from all our old collections, trying to gather the best take of each of the pieces we have not yet had a chance to rerecord, plus favorite old versions, gathering selections from six different albums into one. It also contains two live concert recordings never before released online!

All three are available for $5 each through our bandcamp site, and sales help pay for the production of Sundown.

A fourth collection is coming soon!  We often receive requests from friends and fans who still want access to retired rough tracks, which may not be our cleanest, but are still fun.  We are gathering a selection of the best retired tracks and will soon make them available on our website, both streaming and for free download.  Stay posted!

It’s a big day, and this is going to be the most exciting month Sassafrass has had, with the Kickstarter, three digital releases, and the long-awaited debut of the stage version of Sundown at Balticon.  None of this would be possible without the support and encouragement of our many friends, so thank you for being part of this project, and we hope you enjoy!

Ada & Tili as Odin and Loki, performing “If I Could Ask You”

We also sang “Gift of Life” and “the Futhark Song,” and ended with a group performance of “Somebody Will,” joined by the Harvard fan community and such Vericon guests as Greer Gilman and Jo Walton.  As always, it was great singing with and for you all, and we look forward to singing at Vericon again!

Also, we collected emails for our mailing list of people who want to be notified about our Kickstarter when we start it.  If you’d like us to add you to that list, please do let us know!

Sassafrass also helped once again with the  Vericon charity auction.  This year Ada as Loki helped lead a Team Competition, between “Team Good” and “Team Evil.”  In the end we raised more than $12,000 for Doctors Without Borders, four times what we did last year, and far beyond what anyone expected.  You can see the records of the competition on the chalkboard behind us.  Many thanks to all who helped make the auction a staggering success!

Sassafrass will be giving a concert at Vericon, at Harvard University on Sunday, March 24th at 1 PM.  This concert will feature many of our pieces from Sundown, our upcoming Norse album.  We are SO excited to once again be performing at Vericon, especially with so many incredible guests this year!

Register here!  You can also see information about our awesome speakers this year here. This exciting lineup includes Greer Gilman, N.K. Jemisin, Seanan McGuire, Jennifer Pelland, Jo Walton, and Guest of Honor Tamora Pierce! Make sure to check out the Schedule page as Vericon approaches, too, so you can stay appraised of all the exciting events we’re planning for you this year.

Hope to see you all at Vericon!

Balticon is quickly approaching and preparations are picking up!  Costumes are being ordrered, rooms are being booked, and transportation is being arranged.  And, of course, we are working on all of our songs, recording, and Balticon souvenirs for our table in the Dealers’ Room!

To that end, we received a request from Kate Nepveu, asking if we could signal boost this amazing project:

“Balticon has donated two memberships to Con or Bust, the fund I run that helps fans of color/non-white fans attend SFF cons and that is administered by the Carl Brandon Society, a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction. I would really like these to be used (Balticon donated memberships last year and no-one took them up on it, and I hate when that happens). The donations are good for a new registration or a refund on an existing one–can you spread the word that they’ll be available?

I’ll be taking requests for assistance to attend Balticon (and other cons in April, May, and June 2013) from February 15-25, 2013; the info page is here.”

We really hope that everyone can join us at Balticon, May 25-27!  See you there!

RSVP on Facebook

Dark folk group Stranger Ways and folk fantasy a capella group Sassafrass have each been working on new, ambitious concept albums, and both groups are excited to debut their latest material at Arisia!

Sundown: Whispers of Ragnarok is Sassafrass’s upcoming and long-awaited Norse-themed CD. The songs fit together to form a narrative, beginning with the creation of the world and dramatizing the disastrous consequences of the falling-out between the Allfather Odin and his blood-brother Loki. The lyrics and stories draw directly on the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, the two oldest primary sources of Norse mythology.

Iron and Rust is Stranger Ways’s upcoming “folk-rock opera.” It tells the story of a war between humans and the fae, those who try to stop it, and those who want victory at any cost. Adventure, tragedy, and a bit of twisted humor come together in the band’s most ambitious project to date!

The groups will perform alternating sets of selections from the new albums, old favorites, and a few surprises–come see the show, and spread the word!

Remember: Sassafrass will be the Featured Filkers and our composer, Ada Palmer, the Musical Guest of Honor at Balticon 2013, the Maryland Regional Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, Memorial Day Weekend May 24-27.

We aim to release the finished Sundown: Whispers of Ragnarok CD at the same time, over Memorial Day weekend 2013.  Because the music is so complicated and its mythological references sometimes subtle, we want the CD to have a thorough lyrics booklet, with the complete lyrics for all the parts in all the songs along with notes explaining the mythology.  Because this will make the CD an expensive project, we are planning to use Kickstarter to raise money to help us cover costs for this and the play production.  We aim to launch the Kickstarter in a month or less, and will be very grateful for support from our friends to help us make this project a success.  If you want to be notified about the kickstarter, please subscribe to our updates here, or like us on Facebook.

This will be more than just another concert, however.  At Balticon we will perform on stage, for the first time, Sundown: Whispers of Ragnarok, a Norse Mythology story song-cycle, staged as a play with costumes and characters.  Here our completed set of Norse myth songs will be woven together into a narrative, tracing the rise and fall of the Norse cosmos, and focused on the death of Baldur and the strife between Odin and Loki which leads to Ragnarok.  The play will be narrated and the stories presented by cast members representing the two major authors of our surviving Icelandic myth primary sources: Snorri Sturlson, author of the Prose Edda, and the Seeress who narrates the Völuspá or Seeress’s Prophecy, one of the core sections of the anonymous Poetic Edda.

Sassafrass is especially excited to debut our finished project at Balticon, since it was the enthusiasm and encouragement of the Balticon community which encouraged Sassafrass to start performing again when the group had effectively ceased to exist for a few years.  We are delighted for this opportunity to give back to the community which helped us get this far.

This year we have been nominated for Best Performer, for the second time.  In addition, our tribute to fandom and the space program “Somebody Will” has been nominated for Best Filk Song for the second year in a row.  It’s wonderful to have such clear confirmation that the filk community shares our enthusiasm for the messages of collaboration, progress, community building and hope which Somebody Will represents. It’s also a thrill to see our work nominated alongside that of so many excellent friends and fellow artists, like Ben Newman, S. J. Tucker and Talis Kimberley.

You can find the ballot here with all the nominees listed, and we also encourage you to check out the nominee song clips, with all the nominated songs and performance samples from all the nominated performers.  This year Sassafrass has submitted a new take of Ice & Fire as our performance sample, so we hope people will enjoy hearing the clip, and the full thing when it is shared on the radio.  Anyone who wants to hear the whole thing can contact us.

As usual, it will be impossible for all our scattered members to make it to OVFF October 26-28, but we will definitely have a few people there, and can’t wait to see old friends.  Ada in particular is excited to attend after being unable to last year.

Many thanks to everyone who nominated us!

Some pie at Pi-Con!

We have returned happily from Enfield, CT, where the Boston Contingent of Sassafrass performed at this year’s Pi-Con! The concert featured some of our newer Norse songs– Kara and Emily dueting on “Abandoned,” as well as our full-group Sundown finale, “Longer in Stories Than Stone.” We also brought back some very old favorites, like “For You Are the Wind,” and “All the Time in the World,” and closed with a full-group rendition of “Somebody Will,” dedicated to the Mars Rover Curiosity. Stay tuned– we hope to post videos from the concert to our YouTube channel by the end of the week!

We’d like to thank everyone who helped us this weekend, especially Peter Ellis for his splendid work in organizing and making everything happen, as well as our Stranger Ways colleague Nat Budin for all his technical help with the panel we presented on Sunday morning on audio recording and multi-tracking. And it was, as always, great to see so many new and familiar faces in the audience at our concert, and at the Filk 101 panel on Saturday morning. We’re looking forward to seeing you all again at Arisia, if not before!

To keep people up-to-date, we’re also happy to announce the rejuvenation of our Twitter account, @sassafrassmusic.  Please follow us there for all the latest news on concerts, recording, videos, new songs, and everything else you might want to know!

YES, seven members of Sassafrass will be at Pi-Con from August 17-19.  We will be giving a concert on Saturday night, and will be debuting several Norse pieces and bringing back some older pieces that you may not have heard for a while or may even be new to you!

On Sunday at 11 AM, we will be giving a workshop on multi-tracking and using REAPER, an awesome, low-cost piece of recording software.  Come learn about REAPER and you will have a chance to get your voice on the final chorus of Somebody Will.

We look forward to seeing you, both at our concert and at our workshop!