The Whispering Tree, Beacon, NY
#1 Album, #1 Artist, #2 Song - Folk DJ Charts, Sept 2018
Called “one of the most talented duos to take stage in NYC” by Deli Magazine, The Whispering Tree includes singer/songwriter Eleanor Kleiner and multi-instrumentalist Elie Brangbour. Together, they craft richly immersive folk-rock brimming with evocative lyrics and a panoramic musicality.
Invisible Forces, the fourth recording by the fiercely independent twosome, was self-produced, fan-funded and recorded at Elie and Eleanor's home studio in Beacon, NY and at Old Soul Studio in Catskill, NY. The album explores a deeply personal and political landscape, with themes of hope, despair and social consciousness.
The lead single, “Fat Cat” has its origins in Elie's French background and the old-time gypsy jazz tradition back in his hometown while the satirical, anti-capitalist sentiment of the lyrics is firmly rooted in the protest songs of the folk revival.
Other album highlights include the impressionistic “These Houses,” a song describing the haunting beauty of abandoned places; the revelatory “Heavy” about depression and anxiety, which, with elegant grace, connects New Orleans-style jazz with the 1960s rock and pop harmony vocal tradition; the darkly foreboding environmental ballad, “Garden;” and the sweetly rousing protest song “Bells.”
Since its 2007 inception, The Whispering Tree has issued one album (Go Call the Captain - 2010) and two EPs (The Escape - 2013, The Whispering Tree - 2007) and has been touring nationally and internationally. The duo has also earned prime critical acclaim from Keyboard Magazine and The Big Takeover Magazine, among others. They were selected for several coveted showcases, including the NERFA Folk DJ showcase, two NERFA Semi Formal showcases and a SWERFA formal showcase and as Falcon Ridge Emerging Artists. Other marquee career moments include being Kerrville New Folk finalists; Philadelphia Songwriter's Project winners; and Eleanor and Elie having the honor to lend their voices to Pete Seeger and Lorre Wyatt's album, A More Perfect Union.
"Invisible Forces is a musically diverse take on classic Midwest Americana sung with the soul of the gospel"
"Hauntingly Beautiful"
"A socially potent commentary of humankind's modern times"
"The Whispering Tree tastily combine wistful folk, mellow rock and pinches of gypsy jazz and bluegrass into a compelling compilation of tightly written tunes"
- Keyboard Magazine
"One of the most talented duos to take stage in NYC."
- Deli Magazine
"Spacious, sweeping, snow peak-scaling folk rock."
- The Big Takeover
"The Whispering Tree manage to be extremely accessible without compromising the intelligence of their music. To say that Kleiner sounds like an edgier version of Tift Merritt, or Shelby Lynne in a pensive, cosmopolitan moment, doesn't do justice to the originality of her songwriting or her unaffected, disarmingly direct vocals. The band were amazing."
- Lucid Culture
