Afraid of Me

She has been described by Douglas Wolk in The Village Voice as "the first big pop surprise of the D.I.Y. Cd-R era". Kenneth Goldsmith of New York Press says "as fabulous and strange a debut as I've heard in some time." After learning the rudiments of piano playing from her mother, Marianne Nowottny developed a style that references the scales and modes of eastern music, American popular song and electronic pop rock. Her arcane and complex lyrics and kaleidoscopic song structures are presented as a kind of avant-pop expressionism, aloof but still accessible: it is her own brand of "popmusic." "afraid of me" was produced by playwright Lauri Bortz, proprietor of Abaton Book Company. The recording was engineered by Mark Dagley, a visual artist and founding member of the late 70s punk/dada group "girls." Digital mastering was done by Grammy nominee Steve Vavagiakis. This CD includes 10 songs not found on the original limited edition pressing. A generous 70 minutes of architecturally structured sound documents the astonishing musical and verbal awareness of this prolific young artist.