FEATURING REMIXES FROM ALEX SOMERS & GEORGIA MAQ
+ ADDS NEW DATES TO
OUR TWO SKINS ALBUM TOUR
+ PRESENTS HEALTHCARE WORKER EDITION
OF ISOL-AID FESTIVAL
October 08, 2020
Today Gordi is proud to share the Extraordinary Life EP featuring compelling remixes from Alex Somers (Sigur Ros, Black Mirror) and Camp Cope’s Georgia Maq. The EP also includes a live version recorded at the Sydney Opera House in July this year, and a lo-fi bedroom demo from 2018.
Extraordinary Life is the most streamed song from the 27 year old Canowindra artist-producer’s second album Our Two Skins, notching over 1 million plays on Spotify last week.
Whilst locked down in Melbourne during a break in her hospital rotations as a junior doctor, Gordi (Sophie Payten) invited her friend Georgia Maq for a game of one-on-one basketball.
The game was documented for the official video for the Camp Cope frontwoman’s synth-pop reimagining of the acoustic ballad. The video was filmed and edited by Liam Pethick, shot against the clock in the maximum one hour daily exercise allowance in Melbourne throughout the Stage 4 lockdown.
Watch ‘Extraordinary Life’
Georgia Maq explains her thinking behind the rework:
“When I was approached to rework Extraordinary Life, initially I didn’t really know how to approach it, I didn’t want to do anything with an acoustic guitar and I wanted to challenge myself.. so I taught myself how to use Ableton (a digital audio workstation). Dr Gordi is a beautiful person, Extraordinary Life is a beautiful song and it is my first time recording and producing something entirely myself, I hope you like it.”
Friend and collaborator, Alex Somers has also weaved his trademark magic on the song. Somers and Payten first collaborated in 2015 on her single ‘Wanting’ before Alex invited Gordi to his Reykjavik studio to record a handful of tracks for her debut album Reservoir. They recently collaborated on a live improvised installation performance at Berlin’s PEOPLE festival in 2018, run by Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner. ‘Extraordinary Life’ was originally written while touring with fellow Iceland-based artist, Asgeir, Sophie explains,
“In 2017 I was touring through Europe with Asgeir and we stopped for a few hours sleep in this desperate little hostel in Ghent. We’d just played a show somewhere and were on route to somewhere else. It was 2am and our lobby call was 5am but I was buzzing from the show so I had a shower. I started humming this ascending melody because the reverb in the shower sounded nice. I imagined building this song on top of that repeating melody”
To coincide with Gordi’s new Extraordinary Life EP, additional shows have now been added to the Our Two Skins tour throughout NSW. A number of interstate shows have also been rescheduled to February given the uncertain restrictions in crossing some borders (Queensland election, anyone?). The new dates are below.
However, NSW and non-NSW fans can catch Gordi and a handful of her health-worker musical peers performing for a special edition of online streaming festival Isol-Aid. Gordi will host a co-curated instalment of the popular Instagram Live musical platform featuring short performances and in-conversation segments from the multi-skilled Radio Birdman frontman, doctor and fighter pilot Deniz Tek, qualified nurse Georgia Maq, surgeon Alex Cameron from Adelaide outfit Bad\Dreems, Hip Hop Doe and highly regarded musicologist Dr Emma O’Brien AO. For more details and full lineup head to Isol-Aid’s Instagram.
Our Two Skins was produced alongside Bon Iver’s production team, Chris Messina and Zach Hanson, who flew from Wisconsin to Sophie’s farm in regional Australia to set up a temporary studio. The album is an exploration of identity, community and isolation, as Payten came to terms with her new identity against the backdrop of Australia’s marriage equality vote.
Gordi recently returned to working in hospitals in Victoria to assist with the second wave outbreak in that state.
GORDI – TOUR DATES 2020
Tickets HERE
Wed 21 Oct 2020 (early show/late show) | Factory Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Thu 22 Oct 2020 (early show/late show) | Factory Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Fri 23 Oct 2020 | Newcastle City Hall, Newcastle, NSW *NEW DATE*
Sat 24 Oct 2020 | La La La’s, Wollongong, NSW *NEW SHOW*
Fri 30 Oct 2020 | Canberra Theatre Centre, The Playhouse, Canberra, ACT
*NEW SHOW*
Fri 5 Feb 2021 (early show/late show) | The Triffid, Brisbane, QLD *NEW DATE*
Sat 6 Feb 2021 | Byron Theatre, Byron Bay, NSW *NEW SHOW*
Sat 20 Feb 2021 | Altar, Hobart, TAS *NEW SHOW*
+ WITH BON IVER – 2021
Wednesday 24 March | RAC Arena, Perth
Monday 29 March | Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Saturday 27 March | AEC Arena, Adelaide
Thursday 1 April | Riverstage, Brisbane
Monday 5 April | First State Super Theatre, Sydney
Tuesday 6 April | First State Super Theatre, Sydney
Extraordinary Life EP
Gordi
EP out now through Liberation Records
Available to buy/stream here
Extraordinary Life tracklisting
1. Extraordinary Life
2. Extraordinary Life (Alex Somers remix)
3. Extraordinary Life (Georgia Maq remix)
4. Extraordinary Life (Live at Sydney Opera House)
5. Extraordinary Life (2018 demo)
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