History

History
Leo and L'Orca met in the Pianura Padana of northern Italy in 1990. They were playing together in a promising band influenced by new wave English groups of the late 1980's and by the Italian post new wave scene. The group licensed a few demos and played extensively until the middle of 1992.

At this time Leo and Ric started experimenting acoustic sets. The wind was rapidly changin'; the need for a different sound led soon to drastic line-up changes; the keyboards were definitively abandoned while the guitar became the leading instrument. After a trip to the USA in 1992, the discovery of the Seattle sound, influenced the future artistic journey. With the new name of Godiva, they played in the north of Italy from 1993 to 1995. In the same years, an original acoustic repertoire was steadily growing, and performed live in separate unplugged gigs. In 1995, during the recording sessions of their first CD, the group members went down different roads (godiva music package).

The unplugged activity was instead carried out intermittently until 2003, when Leo and L'Orca decided to give a new impulse to this world, working under the name of The Trees. After a couple of years spent in Vancouver (BC), L'Orca was greatly inspired to tell new stories. These were fused together with the mellow sound of the acoustic guitar, and with electronic loops in their first work: "Del Vecchio Continente", in Italian. L'Orca left for Cleveland, OH in the middle of 2003. The lyrics changed from Italian to English. The sound evolved gradually; from electronic drums accompanying acoustic ballads, to electronic insertions and noises crossing the path traced by the words in the new work "Cherry Blossom", released in 2005.

The CD contains tracks dated up to the middle of 2004, and is presented in two parts: Indian Summer, with the acoustic imprinting of the origins, and Turning Leaves, strongly contaminated with electronic influences. All the tracks are stories of life. Indian Summer tells the end of a broken love story with the illusion to recover it before it fells apart, just like the few warm days that anticipate the cold winter. Turning Leaves are some other girls catching fire and disappearing, just like the color of the leaves. The work of L'Orca and Leo at opposite ends of the ocean, has led to a mix of different musical impressions and musical compositions, influenced by two different cultures.
2006 brought in the collaboration of the band with Jennifer Gray, a talented singer from Cleveland, OH, and Paolo Pansera, a published photographer from Bergamo, Italy. In September the band releases East West Center World. A work more oriented towards electronic sounds, evolving from Turning Leaves.
The opening track Dead Raccoon is the testimony of a mind status. It was written in Washington, DC, while sitting on the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial, similar to Mont Martre from the first CD which was written while sitting on stairs in Paris. Paolo Pansera gives his own interpretation of the music of the band through his pictures taken from the East side of the globe.

The result of L'Orca's many collaborations is El Pirata Del Mediterraneo, his first solo CD.
In 2007 L'Orca moves back to the old continent. The band joins the group GAAM Factory, a collaboration of artists from different fields (food, art, music and fashion).
It has now come the time for the Trees to think over their last several projects and present a compilation of the tracks together, as the sum-up of this period. This has been called Sampler.