Maine-native, Oakland-based singer/songwriter Rachel Efron writes edgy but deeply felt piano driven alt-pop, nuanced by a forever love for improvised jazz and impressionistic classical music. Her songs call to mind her longtime influences The Beatles, Elton John, and Tom Waits, as well as fresh dialogues with such artists as Ben Folds and Feist. But always there is an undercurrent of the jazz and classical sensibilities that are her artistic roots… the melodic gestures of Grieg and Chopin, and the chord extensions of Bill Evans and Brad Mehldau.   

She has recorded three full-length albums and one EP, worked with the best musicians in the Bay Area and New England, played some of the country’s premier listening rooms such as Freight and Salvage (Berkeley), Yoshi’s (Oakland), The Independent (San Francisco), Club Passim (Cambridge), The Living Room (NYC), and Tin Angel (Philidelphia), had the honor of opening for such acts as Sara Bareilles, Vienna Teng, Jill Sobule, and Spencer Day, and has had her music played on radio stations across the United States and Europe, time and again establishing herself as a singer/songwriter with that most precious quality of a unique artistic voice.

She is currently at work on her fifth studio project, a twelve song album to be released early this year. Produced by Jon Evans (Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan) and also featuring drummer Matthias Bossi (Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) and trumpet player / horn arranger Erik Jekabson (Electric Squeezebox Orchestra), it is alternately mischievous, irreverent, and poignant, but always pointed in the direction of unflinching if poetic honesty. Standouts include the delightfully saucy, “Little Bit Of Bad” the can’t-look-away disturbing “Demeter’s Dream” and “Last Goodbye (Persephone’s Dream), and the loving and languid, “Hold Me In The Dark.”

Emassin, Bay Area born and raised and 1/5th of the underground crew ELEMNOP, is a Filipino-American rapper, artist, poet and writer but mostly identifies with being an emcee.

Influenced by Hip-Hop music from the late 80’s/90’s, Sufi poetry and literature from the Jazz Age, Emassin boasts complex rhyme patterns integrated with spirituality, vivid storytelling and undertones of anti-Eurocentric social awareness. 

Emassin credits his 20 years of advocacy and activism work to his dynamic and potent content. Making tracks with producers such as Arndroid, CeeRock and Dex Beats elevated his songs onto an international platform. Despite being somewhat unnoticed in the galaxy of Hip-Hop, Emassin is no newbie to curating music. 

With over a dozen albums under his belt throughout the span of a decade and a half there seems to be no shortage of music by Emassin as he and producer Arndroid continue to drop project after project.

Original music. Piano and vocals written and performed by Fei.

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