"Hollow" and "Get Somethin'"

Avalon Frost realized from childhood her ability to be creative, but her road to chart success and international dance floors never included seriously considering music as a career. Drawing inspiration from the likes of Portishead, Tricky, Grace Jones, David Bowie and Massive Attack, the Atlanta native followed up graduation from film school with several years behind-the-scenes on music videos for the city’s booming rap scene, feature films, and industrials. Avalon also freelanced writing lyrics for local commercial jingles and singing backup for unsigned artists. Looking for fulfillment and thinking about “a real career," she moved to Washington, DC to attend grad school. 

The local market for event singers and DC's bustling electronic dance music scene provided an outlet for her voice and songwriting. Then opportunity knocked with something more: Answering an ad for a single-shot drum’n bass track, Frost met producer ESP of the Liquid Gurus. A year later, while the trio shopped a Liquid Gurus demo, Avalon’s unique vocal presence caught the attention of Bedrock recording artist Holmes Ives (aka Memnon/Oko Tek/Ova). 

Released by Yoshitoshi in February 2005, the pair’s 2x12 inch single, “8 Letters”, quickly burned its way onto international DJ charts to become one of the label’s best-selling track of all time. Featuring exclusive remixes by Mark Knight and Martijn Ten Velden, Tommyboy, and Richard Earnshaw, and bolstered by spins on some of the world’s hottest dance floors. "8 Letters" would go on to be featured on dozens of compilations including Roger Sachez's Release Yourself, Vol. 4, Ultra Record’s Bar Grooves: Manhattan, Hed Kandi’s World Series Live: Paris and Peter Rauhofer’s I Love New York. In 2007, the anthem was re-released with new remixes by the Starkillers, Kamisshake, Cedric Gervais and Ori Morag & Dan Snazelle. Veteran producer/DJ, Victor Calderone, also used the track for a mashup with Celeda’s “Let the Music Lift You Up.” 

Following the success of “8 Letters,” Avalon has been featured on tracks by Delphi, “Break My Fall” and “Take It Back”, as well as the club anthem “Let It Burn” from German-born house impresario, Vincent Thomas. Leveraging official remixes by Jean Claude Ades and Paul Harris of Dirty Vegas, “Let It Burn” received strong critical acclaim and record radio and club play. 

 

 

"Hollow" was the first collaboration between Avalon and Chinese-American EDM artist Jeff Wu.

Avalon and Cuban-American multi-instrumentalist/producer, Luminakus, recently teamed up to create the Sine Nomine project, a virtual soundscape experiment. "Get Somethin'" is their first collaborative release.

 



Get Somethin'

 

 

 

Edited for Unlikely by Rosalyn Spencer, #BlackArtMatters Guest Editor
Last revised on Thursday, September 1, 2016 - 17:29