The Great Escape New Album: ‘Universe In Bloom’
By DONNA BALANCIA
It’s a rare time in Los Angeles when you’d rather stay in than go see any one of thousands of hot bands performing in this City of Angels. But with The Great Escape, they’ve produced so much great music and compelling video, you can’t help but be spellbound.
In addition to amassing an impressive collection of timely visual productions, The Great Escape recently released Universe In Bloom, an album that will make you happy you took the time to listen to this excellent music. The lead singer, Ingrid Andersson, is like an Amy Winehouse with energy and with the accoutrements and squeaky sex appeal of a perfect kewpie doll.
Universe In Bloom
The new album is produced and mastered to perfection by Malte Hagemeister and Kristian Nord. And if you’re wondering why this band sounds familiar, their music has been the background to many a TV commercial. It doesn’t make you a bad person, rather licensing your music to TV commercials is basically the only way musicians make any money today. Check out their website HERE
But The Great Escape has loftier goals than merely making a few pop culture-appealing songs. They create killer videos. Well-done, beautifully produced videos that address issues of our times.
In “Let Me Go Wild,” the band shows in a mini-docu style, the world of LA Krump dance.
More Than Music
The Great Escape band is based in Venice, they’re indie-pop in style and they have a lot to say. Andersson is on lead vocal and she’s joined by Kristian Nord on drums and bass and Malte Hagemeister on guitar. Production was done by Hagemeister and Nord. And here’s the other story entirely.
Truth be told, we knew there was more to this shockingly prolific yet cutesy band than what met the ear.
Nord and Hagemeister are the dynamic duo behind Nordmeister, the music production company-ad agency behind some of the world’s most famous commercials. The dynamic Germans behind Nordmeister have sold more than 8 million records and have collected more awards between them than most Hollywood movie stars can even dream about.
With this knowledge, we watched the videos done by Nordmeister’s project The Great Escape. Their music runs in the background on all the videos and not enough good stuff can be said for the edgy and timely group.
These are professionals and it’s simply not even fair to compare our up-and-coming LA locals to this pro outfit. But they had us going for a minute. It’s not to undercut The Great Escape project. It’s just that these guys are the big leagues. We are more than impressed.
Covering Today’s Issues
The Great Escape band is another entity completely, separate from Nordmeister. The Great Escape sings about the strife in the world but also takes an interview approach to some of the characters in and around L.A. in videos that are slick but look approachable. There are many topics they cover. The Great Escape addresses getting old gracefully and how elder sportspeople cope with keeping themselves in tact as the world goes rushing by. Touching and graceful, the documentary style videos are well-done and bring up a new way of thinking for our self-absorbed selfie culture.
And our personal favorite, not because we love life on the weird West Side, but because of the multiple people interviewed in Venice is, “Good Day.”
In another version of “Good Day,” we actually get to see the outstanding musician-producers.
Make The Most of Your Time
Check out The Great Escape in any way you can, whether it’s watching their videos or seeing them at one of their gigs, most of which seem to be back east. Details to come because we are investing some time following these people.
The Great Escape is known for “Rebel,” which was on the Chase commercial and their “All I Think About,” which was featured on the J.C. Penney commercial.
Regardless of where these people come from, it’s good to see someone promoting humankind and giving back. This band wants to do something really important. And maybe that’s truly The Great Escape.