White Sails

White Sails came to being in Summer 2012 in San Francisco as a collaboration between multi-instrumentalist Ville Vilpponen and singer/lyricist Leigh Gregory, both long time fixtures in the local music scene and former members of acclaimed bands such as Dora Flood and Mellow Drunk.

With Leigh adding vocals and lyrics to Ville’s compositions and Ville’s brother Jaakko on drums and percussion, White Sails released their full-length self-titled debut in January 2013 on Ruska Records. The release received numerous positive critical reviews in UK music publications and in The Big Takeover magazine in the US. The band followed up their debut with the 7-inch vinyl Laguna Dream EP on the UK’s Fruits de Mer Records, an eclectic all instrumental EP that highlighted the more psychedelic side of the band. Again, the EP was warmly received and gathered very positive reviews, in addition to airplay on Gideon Coe’s BBC Radio 6 Music Programme.

The year 2014 sees the band further continue their musical journey with their second full-length album Memory & Desire. Produced by Ville and clocking in at just under forty minutes, Memory & Desire features ten new musical excursions with Ville’s instrumentation adding atmospheric, if not downright romantic, musical textures to the songs. Lyrically Leigh spins stories over the music with tales of two lovers swaying through the nighttime streets of Amsterdam’s Old Quarter to a group of riders searching for the pleasures of the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah.

Recorded in Helsinki, Finland, San Juan Island in Washington and San Francisco, Memory & Desire is a record made for unhurried weekend afternoons at home. A record to soothe you at night after a hard day’s work. So, grab your (quality) headphones and let the music take you away. Somewhere. Anywhere…