Silent Heart FREE

About Silent Heart

'I do like your CD. . . I like your voice. . . and the quality of your compositions is outstanding. These are great songs. . . The arrangements remind me of early Scott Walker songs: tragic, melancholic and subtle'.

Stephen Karkowsky, DJ for 'Radio 1 Late Night Lounge' radio programme, Berlin, reviewing Ortansia's 'Silent Heart' CD.




Adult contemporary singer Ortansia was born in Japan and spent her formative years there. After a first degree in literature at a university in Tokyo, she left for England, earning a doctorate in philosophy and intellectual history from the University of Oxford. She then entered academia.

Ortansia's first love, however, has always been singing and writing songs. On a year's sabbatical in Vienna, Ortansia was much influenced by the city and its beautiful surrounds and composed some 100 songs there. Many are songs of love, and fall into the adult contemporary/delicate pop category, although some of these songs are soft jazz in style. 12 of these songs can now be heard on her Silent Heart CD. Through these songs, she wishes to reach the heart of the listener.

A little about the songs on the Silent Heart CD:

1 CAFE WINDOW:
Outside, it's raining. A girl passes, stops at a cafe and finds a man who looks like the man she loved. She opens the door of the cafe and enters the smoke-filled room. People look at her. She enters, and the music starts. . .

This song was chosen as a FINALIST in the prestigious VH1 Save the Music 'Song of the Year' songwriting competition (Houston, Texas) in 2005, and Ortansia was praised by the judges for her 'exeptionable' songwriting skills.

2 LOVE SONG:
A girl is in love with a boy who doesn't even notice her existence. She sings that her love is like the moon reflected on the pond. It is there and it shines, but you can't even touch it. The instruments on this track express beautifully the girl's love.

3 SPANISH GUITAR:
A traveller hears somebody playing a Spanish guitar. It is nearly midnight in Seville. Melancholy captures the heart and she falls in love. Where does this lead to? Only his guitar knows.

4 FROM YOUR DEEP DARK EYES:
Her fate is his deep dark eyes. She has been looking for him all her life. The sun rises in his eyes. Happiness and sadness reside in his eyes. She cannot stop looking into his dark eyes.

5 SILENT HEART:
It is not love: it's just an illusion of her heart. It cannot be love. It's wrong of her heart to start loving him . . .

6 SUMMER IN VIENNA:
It is a very hot summer in Vienna. He has left Vienna and she is all alone in the city. Everything looks different now. Everything has lost its colour. Only the cafe and the summer heat remains.

7 LOVE'S KALEIDOSCOPE:
His mood changes so often. His heart is just like a kaleidoscope. She sees temptations in his eyes, but it may only be an illusion of love. He even plays with her destiny. His heart is like a kaleidoscope.

8 DANCE WITH ME:
Dance with her. Don't look at anybody else. Just look at her. She wants him to hold her in his arms and dance all through the night.

9 THINK OF ME:
Think of her. Think of her in a crowded, noisy town. Think of her in hazy daylight. Think of her when the moon is still new. Think fo her when the sea starts to cry. Think of her, think of her, think of her.

'Think of Me' was chosen as a semi-finalist in the 2006 UK Songwriting Contest.

10 PLAY A NOCTURNE FOR ME
Now they are alone in the room and he sits at the piano like he used to do. She sits by the window and closes her eyes. She knows that he is leaving before the morning comes. She begs him to play a nocturne for her once again before he goes.

11 THE FAINT SMILE
There's a riddle which she cannot solve. It is the faint smile he leaves behind everytime he says goodbye to her. When she thinks of it, her heart is so puzzled. She does not know what secret lives in those eyes.

12 CHRISTMAS IS NEAR
Let us send our love to everywhere in haste. Christmas is near. Let us stop fighting and let us embrace the Child. Christmas is near. Show your love. He is coming to us. To everywhere on the earth, send love in haste!

'Christmas Is Near' was chosen as a semi-finalist in the 2005 UK Songwriting Contest.



SOME FAVOURITE THINGS. . .

NOVELS:
Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Alexander Dumar, The Three Muskateers
Marie Madeleine de La Fayette, La Princesse De Cleves

SINGERS (for their love of people and life):
Charles Aznavour
Jose Carreras

POETS:
Pushkin
Hermann Hesse

COMPOSERS:
Mozart
Chopin

FILMS:
Visconti's films