Cœur de pirate is the solo project of award-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist Béatrice Martin. Martin has been playing piano and keyboards since she was only 3 years old, and from that early age, felt the desire to express her feelings and experiences through a universal musical language.
 
After a brief stint as keyboardist with the now defunct December Strikes First, Martin briefly joined the Montreal-based indie pop band Bonjour Brumaire as a vocalist and pianist but left in 2008 to record her debut album.
 
Cœur de pirate was issued in September 2008 to immediate national and international acclaim, propelled by massive popularity via her MySpace page, and an unexpected gift courtesy of YouTube…. Francis Vachon, a photographer from Quebec City used the album cut, ‘Ensemble’, as the soundtrack to a time-lapse video of his 9-month old son. This immensely popular clip showcased her music to millions of new fans, earning her praise from Good Morning America, The Globe and Mail, and Perez Hilton, among many others. Pieces in popular fashion magazines (Elle, Chatelaine) and on TV and radio quickly followed, leading to a record deal in France. Cœur de pirate has since been certified Diamond, selling over one million copies worldwide (and counting)!
 
North American and European tours followed, gaining her legions of fans in France and Germany especially. Béatrice then went into the studio to record a duet with Julien Doré and collaborated on the Coca-Cola theme song for the Vancouver Olympics ‘Open Happiness’ with Jay Malinowski and Kardinal Official. She also recorded a duet with David Usher (‘Everyday Things’). Two Felix Awards followed both in 2009 and 2010 and a 2010 Victoire de la Musique Award for Original Song of the Year. Cœur de pirate has also been nominated for a Juno and long-listed for the Polaris Prize.
 
After previously singing exclusively in French, she appeared on Bedouin Soundclash’s 2010 album Light the Horizon, adding haunting English vocals to the standout track ‘Brutal Hearts’. She further collaborated with singer Jay Malinowski on a 5- track EP entitled Armistice, released in February 2011.
 
Cœur de pirate released her highly-anticipated sophomore effort, Blonde, co-produced by Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Basia Bulat, Godspeek You! Black Emperor, The Dears) and Béatrice Martin herself in November 2011. The first single, ‘Adieu’, a sophisticated pop mini-masterpiece quickly became a hit across Quebec and France. Featuring rolling waves of bass and drums, supported by her pixie-dusted vocals; ‘Adieu’ marked a musical revolution for Martin who left her beloved piano behind for one song.
 
After a sold out tour across Europe, Canada and the United States, Cœur de pirate brought home two Félix at l’ADISQ 2012 (Pop Album Of The Year and Female Singer Of The Year). Later that year, her homonymous album became certified Diamond in France (500 000 copies sold) and Blonde reached over 200 000 copies sold worldwide. After a short hiatus in 2013 that marked songwriting collaborations with Simple Plan, Lights and Jean-Marc Couture (Star Academie 2012 Winner), a duet with superstar Roch Voisine and two more ADISQ nominations (Song Of The Year and Video Of The Year). Cœur de pirate is back in force in January 2014 with the soundtrack of hit Radio-Canada medical series, Trauma, featuring 12 carefully curated english cover songs, from The Stones to Bon Iver.
 
More recently, Cœur de pirate created the original soundtrack of the video game Child of Light, created by Ubisoft, a Montreal-based video game company.
 
Cœur De Pirate official site
Cœur De Pirate on Facebook
Cœur De Pirate on Twitter

The Brooklyn-based, Berkeley-raised piano-violin duo, Gracie and Rachel, crafts intricate tunes combining classical string elements with haunting, fierce vocals augmented by sparse but powerful percussion. It is ivory satin lined with teeth, finding beauty in stark simplicity and pausing to breathe a hint of the abstract into the highly emotive, evolved body they create.
 
Their forthcoming debut album Go is a penetrating record of a lifelong friendship which flows freely between virtuosic violin textures to sylphlike melodies highlighting seasoned songwriting. The result: a heartfelt glimpse into two artists’ intertwined lives. From the pit of despair to the summit of success, Gracie and Rachel are always headed somewhere new.
 
Gracie and Rachel official site
Gracie and Rachel on Soundcloud
Gracie and Rachel on Facebook
Gracie and Rachel on Twitter