She (band)

she was a band formed in 2003 by the artist Lain Trzaska, sometimes credited as shemusic or Pjat Lain. As its main producer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Lain was the only official member of she but he occasionally brought in vocalists to perform.^[5] On July 28, 2013, Lain announced through Twitter that he was under hiatus to focus more on 4ikai and Imagery By Sound, two other solo projects of his.^[6]

History

Lain Trzaska was born on June 20, 1983 in Kraków, Poland. He moved to Sweden at the age of 5 where he learned to play piano and violin at an early age.

In 1997, Lain began creating music using FastTracker for computer games he had created.

In 2003, Lain started releasing music under the alias of "she".

In June 2008, shortly after releasing Coloris, "she" was contacted by Japanese music label Pony Canyon for a record deal.^[7]

In May 2012, Lain announced on Twitter that "she" has been put on indefinite hiatus.^[8] He later clarified that only the band has been put on hiatus, not himself as an artist.^[9] A few days later, Lain announced that "shemusic" (a.k.a his style of music blend [mainly Electro House/Chiptune and Ambient Acoustic] released under his band "she") was going to split in two. Lain announced the new band as "Imagery by Sound". "she" and "Imagery by Sound" are now the two sides of "shemusic". While "she" follows its way on Electro House & Chiptune, "Imagery by Sound" focuses now on the "ambient/acoustic & electro experimental aspect of "shemusic". "Imagery by Sound" features the previous albums (Insomnia, Days, Digital Ambient Designs) from "she" as a related musical legacy.

The upcoming "Nights" album will be released under "Imagery by Sound".^[10]

In September 2012, Lain announced that shemusic would release a new LP titled "Electric Girl".

Musical style

While she's music can be labeled as electronica and chiptune, it incorporates elements from ambient and classical music. Using a mixture of old 8-bit computers and modern equipment, she's music is produced in the bitpop style.

While she's albums are electronic in nature, they can vary in genres from album to album. For example, she's first release, Emit and Exude, is a blend of industrial/electro with electric guitars; the third release, Pioneer, is a chiptune album that uses a Game Boy as the main instrument, and the first major release, Coloris, is a dance/electronica album.

Lain often uses acoustic instruments with synthesizers^[3] (this stems from his musical roots in classical piano).

An effect Lain often uses is "synthetic distortion", i.e. making the music sound 'glitchy' or 'laggy' like a damaged mp3 or CD. This creates an impression of the music being damaged.

Lain uses Renoise often, (a DAW based upon the heritage and development of tracker software) to create his music.^[11] He often masters his music using Sound Forge.

Visuals and design

The graphic illustrations and designs surrounding she's releases are directly connected with each album and both the images and music are intended to tell a story. For example, the days album was created as a short story where each song introduces a new chapter.^[12] Lain describes that while the sounds, effects, and lyrics give clues to the story of the album, "the listener would find himself creating images and events in his head, completing the story".^[3]

A recurring theme in she's art is that some images seem to be damaged or poorly compressed in certain parts. Just like with the music distortion, the images give the impression that the file is incomplete, broken and not correctly displayed.

Lain uses symbolism in his images, noticeable in the album art of chiptek, and most recently in his upcoming album nights. The cover of nights displays the pyramid and Mandelbrot set.^[13]

Discography

All of she's releases are free for download, excluding the major releases, which were released on the label Pony Canyon.^[3]

Music from the album days is used as music in the movie 12 Fl oz.^[14]

The Electric Girl album was originally planned for a release in 2010, but was later postponed until November 2012.

Major releases

• Orion - September 16, 2009
• Coloris - June 17, 2008
• Nights (under Imagery by Sound)^[15] - TBA

EP/Compilations

• Insomnia by Imagery by Sound^[16] - December 6, 2012
• Electric Girl - November 29, 2012^[17] (November 10, 2010 was intended release date)
• Journeys^[18][19] - May 10, 2011
• Chiptek - November 1, 2008
• days - June 17, 2007
• Pioneer - December 20, 2006
• digital ambient designs - March 16, 2005
• Emit and Exude - May 4, 2004

Singles

• Easy Action^[20] - September 13, 2013
• Archetype^[21] - July 19, 2013
• Come See Me^[22] - June 25, 2013
• Break The Silence^[23] - March 28, 2013
• Since You Left^[24] - March 3, 2013
• Distortia^[25] - January 13, 2013
• Always Yours^[26] - December 13, 2012
• Make Me Real^[27][28] - March 25, 2011
• 2008/Chiptune Superstar - December 20, 2008
• Songbird - February 10, 2007
• And Beyond - July 5, 2005

References

External links

• shemusic Official website
• shemusic on Facebook
• shemusic on Myspace
• shemusic on Last.fm
• shemusic on SoundCloud