Night of Hunters is the twelfth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released on September 20, 2011, in the United States through Deutsche Grammophon.[2] It is a concept album that Amos has described as "a 21st century song cycle inspired by classical music themes spanning over 400 years."[3] She pays tribute to classical composers such as Alkan, Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Granados, Satie and Schubert,[4] taking inspiration from their original compositions to create new, independent songs. Regarding the album's concept, she has described it as the exploration of "the hunter and the hunted and how both exist within us" through the story of "a woman who finds herself in the dying embers of a relationship."[3]
Night of Hunters is Amos's first studio album recorded using only acoustic instruments, relying solely on her vocals and classically trained piano skills, along with a variety of accompanyingstring and woodwind instruments, to create its classical sound.[5] Additionally, to record this album Amos broke a nearly 15-year-long collaboration with her studio and touring bandmates, choosing to work with a variety of new musicians, including the Berlin Philharmonic's principal clarinetist, Andreas Ottensamer, and the award-winning string quartet, Apollon Musagète, while enlisting her daughter, Natashya Hawley, and niece, Kelsey Dobyns, as guest vocalists. Night of Hunters also marks the twentieth anniversary of her long-time collaboration with John Philip Shenale, who has contributed arrangements to most of her albums, beginning with her solo debut, Little Earthquakes (1992).
The album is Amos' first release on a classical music label. Like her previous releases, it is available in both standard and deluxe CD formats, digital format, as well as limited edition vinyl. Amos also released an entirely instrumental version of the album entitled Night of Hunters – Sin Palabras (without words) available only to download.
In an interview with Out magazine, Amos revealed that work on Night of Hunters began after Deutsche Grammophon approached her to write a 21st Century song cycle under the condition that it be centered around classical music themes. She also suggested that her work on the upcoming musical, The Light Princess, sharpened her narrative skills for the project.[6] In the official electronic press kit released for the album, Amos spoke of listening to and being inspired by the music of Stravinsky and of how she was "taken by the idea of an octet" for this project, stating that she found it appealing that other instruments could serve as the voices of various characters throughout the story while not overpowering the piano as the central instrument of the piece.[7] In an interview with Marcel Anders, journalist for The Interview People, Amos credited Dr. Alexander Buhr, executive producer for Deutsche Grammophon, with providing her with a wealth of knowledge on the great composers of the last four-hundred years and with recordings of some of their best compositions. Amos pointed out that it was Dr. Buhr who initially approached and offered her the opportunity to headline this project. During this interview, Amos also cited Schubert's Winterreise as "a mentor in many ways"[citation needed] while composing Night of Hunters.
Concept
According to Amos, the concept centers on a woman who is left alone on the eve of her relationship's demise in an old Georgian house near the River Bandon, located on the outskirts of Kinsale, County Cork in Ireland. As dusk turns to night, the woman is confronted by Anabelle, a shapeshifting "childlike creature" who "emerges from nature", played by Amos's daughter. The mythical creature, representing "duality", as well as the ancient forces of "the hunter" and "the hunted", coaxes the woman to follow her into the night, transporting them both approximately three-thousand years into the past to witness a previous incarnation of the woman's relationship. It was a time of great chaos and violence in ancient Ireland as a war of beliefs raged on, and the woman and her lover fought side-by-side as bards, using the ancient tree alphabet as their only weapon. Once the war was lost, however, the woman and her lover crossed the Atlantic on his sailboat, abandoning her world, the New World, in favor of his world, the Old World. It was during this time that forces, both within and outside of their control, drew the couple apart. After their sojourn into the past, Anabelle inducts the woman in an ancient peyote ritual which is meant to further expand her consciousness through both hallucinogenic and meditative means. During the ritual, Anabelle helps the woman realize how she abandoned her own fire and inner-strength when she left her world in favor of her lover's. The woman also sees how both she and her former lover interchangeably misused the ancient forces of "the hunter" and "the hunted" against one another throughout the course of their union. This self-destructive dynamic, in turn, also plagued the present-day incarnation of their relationship. Once the ritual and woman's self-examination are complete, Anabelle reminds her of the perils and benefits found in using and misusing the ancient energies of "the hunter" and "the hunted". The creature also advises the woman that there are "forces" at work that must be dealt with and that she must leave her so that she alone may face the Fire Muse, played by Amos's niece Kelsey Dobyns. In meeting the mythical goddess, the woman is allowed to recapture the fire and inner-strength she had abandoned, both in her past and present incarnations, and is taught about the "light" and "dark" forces of the world at large. The Fire Muse reminds the woman that more than just her own mortal pains and desires are of concern and, together, as the fiery goddess calls upon the woman to see the world from a higher perspective, they weave a spell to protect the light of the world from the forces of darkness. The woman ends her journey at dawn, renewed and grateful for her place in the world and for all of the people that have inhabited her life, including her former lover.
In an interview with Instinct, Amos spoke of relating "to both the male and female in this story,"[citation needed] while during her interview with The Interview People, she stressed that the themes tackled on the record are dualistic in nature for her, whereby they are somewhat telling of both "intimate conflict[s]" within her own marriage along with the "greater problem[s]" of the world today.[citation needed] Amos revealed that the album is "a compilation of experiences Mark and I have had for over sixteen years. We're still together, knock on wood. And we work together and we play together. And we're trying to be parents together. And it's difficult sometimes when you have to be the grown-ups."[citation needed] "I understand the man and the woman [on this album] very well," she continued. "It's not a play by play of me and husband, but there is a bit of us in there."[citation needed] In regards to the universal aspect of the record, Amos concluded, "As the story progresses, the protagonist begins to see that there [are] greater problem[s] in the world. And they have to deal with their world. Not just another person in their world, but their relationship to the world itself."[citation needed]
Promotion and touring
Promotion for Night of Hunters kicked off on August 18, 2011, when Amos and Deutsche Grammophon debuted a video for the song Carry along with an audio stream of the song "Shattering Sea" on Facebook.[8] On September 12, 2011, NPR featured the first authorized full audio stream of Night of Hunters, accompanied by a review of the album by music journalist Ann Powers, co-author of Amos' biography, Piece by Piece (2005).[9]
To promote the album, Amos embarked on the Night of Hunters Tour supported by the Apollon Musagète,[10] making it her first tour with a string quartet. Amos launched the tour in Europe on September 28, 2011, in Helsinki, finishing in Dublin on November 9, 2011. This was followed by a tour in North America that began on November 29, 2011, in Atlanta, Georgia, and ended on December 22, 2011, in Grand Prairie, Texas. Prior to the tour, Amos has revealed that John Philip Shenale was rearranging various songs from her catalogue to accommodate the string quartet.[6]
Although some critics took issue with the extensive concept of Night of Hunters, reviews were mostly positive, with many also citing it as Amos's strongest release in nearly a decade.[12][13][20][21][22][23] Additionally, a number of critics took note of the vocal contributions by Amos's daughter and of Amos's own skills as a pianist, citing both as major highlights of the record.
AllMusic gave the album a glowing review, stating, "[Amos] employs her finest vocal and piano-playing skills [here]," resulting in an album of "sophistication, elegance, and poetry" that "contains the power, dynamics and splendor of her very best material,"[1] while the Associated Press observed, "There are clear classical, even operatic influences, from sweeping strings and reedy woodwinds, [to] Amos' gripping piano" on this "beautifully composed album which highlights Amos'[s] classical training and fierce intensity as a musician and songwriter."[24]The A.V. Club praised Amos for "[getting] back to the basics", calling the record a "sprawling [...] thesis on the enduring beauty of classical music" and "[Amos'] most enjoyable album in years,"[12] while Blurt magazine insisted, "There's so much more to Amos' latest music," stating, "The one-time child prodigy is a celebrated virtuoso for a reason. Doubters need only listen to her ever-masterful piano playing intertwined with orchestral movements [here] and her as-distinctive-as-Stevie Nicks' voice to confirm that", declaring the album "a rare musical vision you'd be foolish to pass up."[25] The Daily Express also hailed the album, calling it "complex, accomplished and [Amos's] finest work in a decade."[13]Glide Magazine was taken by the "power, immediacy and splendor" of the album, stating, "Amos has delivered her most absorbing, forceful and captivating record since 2002’s Scarlet's Walk," declaring it, finally, "a venerable tour de force."[22]Drowned in Sound gave a positive review, praising Amos for the sparse production of the album and noting "as a whole [it] showcases the best of [Amos's] piano work."[14]The Guardian criticized the album for its "overthought concept" and focus on "resolution rather than build-up", but praised Amos for her craftmanship as a musician, stating, "[The fact] that Amos can weave her own songs so deftly into variations on classical pieces is testament to her talent, and the piano, string and woodwind arrangements frequently sound as lovely as her earlier orchestral experiments."[26] The Harvard Crimson praised Amos for "composing an album that effectively uses chamber music as a tool relevant to the times," declaring it "the work of an accomplished musical architect" and describing it as "an inimitable blend of vocal arrangements, orchestral scoring, and a spiritual homage to nature" with "moments of impeccable instrumentation" that "play more like the score of a dramatic film than the work of a singer-songwriter," all of it culminating in "an intricate, swirling triumph."[27]
Holy Moly! called it "a sumptuous sounding work, with the piano to the fore," also noting "While this is a new approach for [Amos] (abandoning her usual musicians in favour of [a] clarinettist and string quartet), she sounds completely at home with what is essentially an intellectual take on the Broadway musical."[28] The Los Angeles Times called the album "a beautiful kaleidoscope of remembering and letting go", comparing it to the works of Kate Bush and stating, "[Amos'] voice is a crystal bell with only the ivory [of her piano] guiding her" as we witness "an artist maturing and growing with her music, [and] making sense of her past in a wholly original, intelligent way." The London Evening Standard praised Amos for handling the classical proceedings "triumphantly", stating, "From the reassuringly bleak opening to the breathy piano and scratched strings of the [album's centerpiece], these graceful, imaginative, all-acoustic songs threaten to give classical crossover a good name. Amos, meanwhile, deserves a reappraisal."[29]Metromix called the record "one of the most gorgeous and challenging albums of Amos' career," pointing out her "stunning acoustic piano skills," and labeling it, finally, "a master class in Amos' artistic power."[17]The Digital Fix gave the album a positive review, distinguishing it for its "rich sonic tapestry, with strings and woodwinds swelling underneath [Amos'] always virtuoso piano performances,"[30] and NPR declared it "the album [Amos] was destined, by early apprenticeship and spiritual affinity, to record."[31]The Observer, in turn, criticized the album for its "florid excesses", stating, "it plays out like an intermittently absorbing, if overly demanding, night at the theatre [...] but Amos'[s] voice possesses enough conviction and personality to breathe life into what could have been an orchestral folly,"[32] while Ology also cited it as "[Amos'] best album in more than a decade," calling it "an overpoweringly lush rumination on her classical influences that’s both sprawling and intimate, powerful and delicate."[23]
PopMatters criticized the album for its "elliptical" narrative but noted, "Nevertheless, the album does contain its share of gripping drama, undeniable poignancy, and iridescent beauty" and "it is hard not to applaud, even marvel at its intense focus, meticulous craftsmanship, and bravura performances, not to mention its sheer artistic ambition."[33]The Salt Lake Tribune commended Amos for "[skipping] the gimmicks that have marred her later works and [returning] to the raw emotion and power of her earlier songs,"[34] while The Scotsman hailed the album, also comparing it to the works of Kate Bush and calling it "piano rich", "intensely personal", "bonkers, mesmeric and charged with a pristine eroticism," declaring, finally, "This is a real record by a real artist, a rare thing in this age of disposable culture."[35] The Scottish magazine, The Skinny, praised the album for its "focus on delicate symphonies and baroque drama," comparing it to "the stark and candid nature of Under the Pink," and citing it as both "a breathtaking return" and Amos's "strongest album in over a decade,"[20] while Slant criticized the album for its uniform sound and tempo, but noted, "The more direct songs are genuinely beautiful and transcend the trappings of the album's rigid construct," also stating, "every [string and] woodwind instrument rings with the purest of tones in support of Amos' typically stunning piano work" resulting in a "beautiful, smart record."[36]Spin praised Amos for creating "a wildly imaginative ride full of orchestral fireworks and fairy-tale melodrama,"[19] while Uncut Magazine declared, "If the aim was to out-bonkers Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush while creating a compelling album, Amos has more than succeeded."[11] The UK-based women in music compendium, Wears The Trousers Magazine, continued with the praise, also crediting the album with being Amos's "most cohesive and consistent" in nearly a decade, lauding her for "[building] on the work of past masters to develop an utterly distinctive vision of her own," resulting in "a rich, immersive record of beauty, danger and grace."[21]
The album was awarded the EchoKlassik-ohne-Grenzen-Preis (Classics without Borders Prize) in 2012.[37]
The chart below lists the album's peak positions on various music charts around the world. While the album's debut at No. 24 on the Billboard 200 did not chart particularly well compared to some of her earlier albums, many of which debuted in the top 10 in the US, Amos did make Billboard history by being the first female artist to have an album place in the top 10 of the Classical, Alternative, and Rock charts simultaneously.[38]
Tori Amos is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full scholarship to the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University at the age of five, the youngest person ever to have been admitted. She had to leave at the age of eleven when her scholarship was discontinued for what Rolling Stone described as "musical insubordination". Amos was the lead singer of the short-lived 1980s pop / rock group Y Kant Tori Read before achieving her breakthrough as a solo artist in the early 1990s. Her songs focus on a broad range of topics, including sexuality, feminism, politics, and religion.
From the Choirgirl Hotel is the fourth studio album by American musician Tori Amos. It was released on May 5, 1998, on Atlantic Records. The album was Amos's first to be recorded at her own Martian Engineering Studios in Cornwall, England and was self produced, with the mixing being handled by longtime collaborators Marcel van Limbeek and Mark Hawley, whom she had married in early 1998.
Strange Little Girls is a concept album released by singer-songwriter Tori Amos in 2001. The album's 12 tracks are covers of songs written and originally performed by men, reinterpreted by Amos from a female point of view. Amos created female personae for each track and was photographed as each, with makeup done by Kevyn Aucoin. In the United States the album was issued with four alternative covers depicting Amos as the characters singing "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", "Strange Little Girl", "Time", and "Raining Blood". A fifth cover of the "I Don't Like Mondays" character was also issued in the UK and other territories. Text accompanying the photos and songs was written by author Neil Gaiman. The complete short stories in which this text appears can be found in Gaiman's 2006 collection Fragile Things.
Boys for Pele is the third studio album by American singer and songwriter Tori Amos. Preceded by the first single, "Caught a Lite Sneeze", by three weeks, the album was released on January 22, 1996, in the United Kingdom, on January 23 in the United States, and on January 29 in Australia. Despite the album being Amos's least radio friendly material to date, Boys for Pele debuted at number two on both the US Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart, making it her biggest simultaneous transatlantic debut, her first Billboard top 10 debut, and the highest-charting US debut of her career to date.
Scarlet's Walk is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter and pianist Tori Amos. It was released on October 28, 2002 in the UK and October 29 in the US on Epic Records, making it her first release on the label after her split with Atlantic Records. Her first studio album of original material since To Venus and Back in 1999, the 18-track concept album details the cross-country travels of Scarlet, a character loosely based on Amos, and was greatly inspired by the changes in American society and politics post-September 11, 2001. Topics explored on the album include nationalism, personal relationships, and the death of a close friend. Amos also took inspiration from the stories of her grandfather, who she claims was Cherokee and told her of the abuses against Native Americans throughout the United States' history.
The Beekeeper is the eighth studio album by American musician Tori Amos. It was released on February 20, 2005, through Epic Records and is her second release for the label. As with many of Amos' releases throughout the 2000s, The Beekeeper is a concept album, heavily inspired by the practice of beekeeping and its connection to femininity and female empowerment. The album's nineteen tracks are separated into six different "gardens", and are inspired by topics such as her experiences with motherhood, betrayal ("Witness"), and Christian mythology.
Tori Amos is an American pianist and singer-songwriter whose musical career began in 1980, at the age of seventeen, when she and her brother co-wrote the song "Baltimore". The song was selected as the winning song in a contest for the Baltimore Orioles and was recorded and pressed locally as a 7" single. From 1984 to 1989, Amos fronted the synth-pop band Y Kant Tori Read, which released one self-titled album with Atlantic Records in 1988 before breaking up. Shortly thereafter, Amos began writing and recording material that would serve as the debut of her solo career. Still signed with Atlantic, and its UK counterpart East West, Amos' initial solo material was rejected by the label in 1990. Under the guidance of co-producers Eric Rosse, Davitt Sigerson and Ian Stanley, a second version of the album was created and accepted by the label the following year.
American Doll Posse is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released in 2007 by Epic Records. A concept album, American Doll Posse sees Amos assuming the identity of five different female personalities inspired by Greek mythology in order to narrate stories of life in modern America. Themes include opposition to the Iraq War, recording industry misogyny, disillusionment, sexuality, personal loss, and female empowerment in general. Musically, the record is more rock-oriented than other studio works by Amos, notably featuring more guitar and drums than previous albums The Beekeeper (2005) and Scarlet's Walk (2002).
Abnormally Attracted to Sin is the tenth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released 19 May 2009, in standard and limited CD/DVD edition. The album debuted on Billboard 200 at no. 9, giving Amos her seventh Top 10 album in the US.
"Welcome to England" is a song by American singer and songwriter Tori Amos, appearing on the album Abnormally Attracted to Sin (2009). It was released as the lead digital single from the studio album on April 14, 2009 by Universal Motown Republic Group, which also marks as her first single released from the label. Written and produced by Amos herself, just like the rest of the album, the song was recorded at her husband's studio in England, Martian Studios.
Midwinter Graces is the eleventh solo studio album by singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released on November 10, 2009, through Universal Republic Records. It is the first seasonal album by Amos and is also notable for marking her return to a more classical, stripped-down, baroque sound with various synths, string instruments, the harpsichord, and Amos's own signature Bösendorfer piano at center stage, once more. The album, like previous releases from Amos, is available in a single-form CD or a deluxe edition, which includes three bonus tracks, a twenty-page photo book, and a DVD containing an interview with Amos. The standard edition was not released in the US or Canada. Midwinter Graces became Amos's lowest-charting album on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 66.
Little Earthquakes is the debut solo album by the American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, featuring the singles "Silent All These Years", "China", "Winter" and "Crucify". After Atlantic Records rejected the first version of the album, Amos began working on a second version with her then-boyfriend Eric Rosse. The album was first released in the UK on January 6, 1992, where it peaked at number 14 in the charts.
To Venus and Back is a double album by American singer, songwriter and pianist Tori Amos. Released on September 21, 1999, it comprises her fifth studio album and first live album. The first disc, entitled Venus: Orbiting, shows Amos increasingly experimenting with elements of electronica and trip hop, and spawned the singles "Bliss", "1000 Oceans", "Glory of the 80's", and "Concertina". The second disc, Venus Live, Still Orbiting, was recorded mostly during her Plugged '98 tour in support of her previous album, From the Choirgirl Hotel.
John Philip Shenale is a Canadian composer, arranger, musician and producer based in Los Angeles.
The Night of Hunters Tour was the eleventh world concert tour by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos in support of her twelfth studio album Night of Hunters. During the tour Amos was supported by the Apollon Musagète Quartett, making this her first tour with a string quartet. As well as playing select songs from Night of Hunters, Amos played various songs from her back catalogue rearranged by her longtime collaborator, John Philip Shenale, to accommodate the string quartet.
Gold Dust is the 13th solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released on October 1, 2012 by Deutsche Grammophon and Mercury Classics. The album is produced by Amos with arrangements by long-time collaborator John Philip Shenale. Inspired by and following in a similar vein as Amos's previous effort, the classical music album Night of Hunters (2011), Gold Dust features some of her previously released alternative rock and baroque pop songs re-worked in an orchestral setting. The material for Gold Dust, consisting of songs selected by Amos spanning almost her entire catalogue at the time, from Little Earthquakes (1992) through Midwinter Graces (2009), was recorded with the Metropole Orchestra, conducted by Jules Buckley.
Unrepentant Geraldines is the fourteenth studio album by American musician Tori Amos. It was released on May 9, 2014 through Mercury Classics. The album marks a return to pop and rock music after several releases in the classical genre. Recorded at her own Martian Engineering Studios, the album was self-produced and mixed by her husband Mark Hawley and Marcel van Limbeek.
"Carry" is a song by American recording artist Tori Amos, released as the main promotional single from the album Night of Hunters (2011). The track was released Aug 18, 2011 as a digital download only with an accompanying video clip.
Native Invader is the fifteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos. It was released on September 8, 2017, through Decca Records. Its lead single "Cloud Riders", was released on July 27, 2017.
Ocean to Ocean is the sixteenth studio album by American musician Tori Amos. It was released on October 29, 2021 through Decca Records. The album was written during lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic in Cornwall, England and featured the musicians collaborating remotely, with recording occurring in England, California, and Massachusetts. It is Amos's first studio album since Midwinter Graces (2009) to feature her typical backing band of Matt Chamberlain on drums, Jon Evans on bass, and Mac Aladdin on guitar.
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