Ange Takats is preparing to release her second album Arva, with a sound departing from her debut 2009 album Aniseed Tea.  With three-part vocal harmonies, string arrangements and ragtime jazz instrumentation, the 11-track album is a departure from the former Q Song award winner’s folk roots.

“Strangely enough it was Joni Mitchell who led me to 1930s jazz. I read an article in which Joni spoke about being greatly influenced by the work of Billie Holiday. I bought a Holiday album and fell in love – not only with her achingly honest voice but also with the charm of the era. I went on to discover the Boswell Sisters and began playing around with backing vocal ideas for some of my songs,” Ange said.

For her second album Ange travelled to Victoria to team up with award-winning composer and producer J. Walker (Machine Translations) who recorded and produced Paul Kelly’s recently released album Spring And Fall.

“J.Walker had just finished composing the music for the ABC TV series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries which is set in the 1920s, so he was in the perfect ‘oldie world’ headspace to work on my songs. We recorded most of the vocals in an old town hall in Gippsland … a few weeks later he was back in the same hall, recording Paul Kelly’s album,” Ange said.

Walker recorded, produced, mixed and laid down most of the instrumental tracks on the album – playing double bass, piano accordion, violin, cello, piano, vibraphone, dulcimer, banjo and percussion. He also gently nudged Ange outside of her comfort zone with some challenging backing vocal arrangements on tracks like Infatuation, which was released as a single in late 2012.

“We did most of the harmonies on the run in the studio. He was playing these crazy jazz notes on the piano and asking me to mimic them with my voice, which was no easy feat,” Ange said.

Ange has had an unusual journey into the world of music – beginning her career ten years ago in Bangkok where she worked as a foreign correspondent during the day and folk singer at night. She released her debut album, Aniseed Tea, in 2009 and has spent the past few years performing at music festivals and venues across the country.

She will launch her new album at the Sandgate Town Hall on Saturday 2 February where she’ll be joined by a three-piece old-time band featuring Steve Cook on banjo/mandolin, Caroline Trengove on violin/backing vocals and Tim Finnigan on double bass.

The album is being supported by a RADF grant from the Sunshine Coast Regional Council and Arts Queensland and it is already receiving high praise from international music critics.

Ange Takats will be launching her album Arva at Sandagate Town Hall, Saturday 2nd February