11 Acorn Lane

Thomas Foyer and Neal Pawley, who are 11 Acorn Lane, have a thing about happy occasions. The two accomplished musicians met at a wedding (they were in the band), accompanied Stevie Wonder on "Isn't She Lovely?" at the wedding of his daughter Aisha (for whom he wrote the song). Their fourth album, 'Happy Holy Days,' may be their happiest yet, blending a buoyantly Esquivelian Sixties lounge aesthetic with modern electronica to serve up familiar holiday classics and other delights. Why holiday music? Both have fond memories of the season dating back to their childhoods. Neal, who hails from Sheffield, England, remembers getting a guitar the Christmas he was eight years old, while Thomas recalls singing "Silent Night" and "Oh Christmas Tree" (both on the album) with his family and the real candles on the tree at their home in Effretikon, Switzerland. Each had started studying music early, and by the time of those Christmases were well on their way to learning the Dozens of instruments they play on 'Happy Holy Days.' The album was meticulously arranged, produced and recorded over the course of three years by just the two men in the New York City studio they call the Armory. The 12 clarinets you hear in close harmony in the marching band on "Floats And Balloons"? Those are Thomas playing 12 different parts. While they were at it, both learned another instrument ΠThomas added piccolo to his list, while Neal added the French horn to his. Their composition and performance skills were carefully honed at renowned music schools: London's Guildhall School of Music and New York's Manhattan School of Music (Neal) and the American School Of Modern Music in Paris and Boston's Berklee School of Music (Thomas). Then came years, separately, of playing, producing, writing and remixing with a long list of musical notables including Quincy Jones, Herb Alpert, Bon Jovi, Billy Eckstine, The Temptations and Willie Nelson. Thomas and Neal's meeting at that fateful wedding in the U.S. finally gave the two an outlet for the full range of their compositional interests and creative energy. The result: 11 Acorn Lane's uniquely upbeat melding of the jazz, latin, exotica, funk and big band elements of Sixties lounge music with influences from their own histories and from around the world, including current beats and modern production techniques. That's why 11 Acorn Lane is a place where, Thomas says, "Henry Mancini meets Fatboy Slim over a glass of wine, and Serge Gainsbourg pops in." Their signature sound, combining painstaking craftsmanship with tongue-in-cheek quirkiness, explains why they've had music featured on shows including HBO's "Bored to Death," Showtime's "Weeds," ABC's "Ugly Betty," and PBS's "Roadtrip Nation," among many other prominent placements. 11 Acorn Lane is "an imaginary address where our music lives," Neal says, "in an imaginary lounge where all kinds of instruments get together and do unexpected things. " It's also a venue where the whimsy of European childhoods can combine with the skills learned in decades of making music to create the smile-inducing music of 'Happy Holy Days.' Which brings us to a final, and fitting, note of happiness: a short clip from "Mazinka" was used, just before the album's release, on NPR's witty game show "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me," and a bride-to-be heard it and contacted the twosome. As they well knew from their many wedding experiences, the rollicking, klezmer-influenced mazinka is part of a lovely Jewish wedding tradition that includes the entire family, and this bride wanted permission to play 11 Acorn Lane's version at hers. That joyous occasion was the song's world premiere.