Sun Palace is the creation of Andriette Redmann, a New York City resident who once recorded for CBS Records Italy as a solo artist. Redmann wears more than one hat with
Sun Palace -- in addition to providing all of the group's lead vocals and handling most of the songwriting, Redmann plays electric keyboards and helps with the producing. With
Sun Palace, Redmann has favored an approach that is lush, caressing, and highly melodic, as well as dreamy and ethereal;
Sun Palace's folk-rock and adult alternative recordings tend to float rather than rock, and that holds true whether Redmann is embracing her own material or offering the occasional cover song, most notably,
Led Zeppelin's "Going to California," which is an appropriate choice because it was one of the legendary British hard rock/heavy metal band's more folk-minded offerings. Stylistically,
Sun Palace's original material is comparable to artists who range from
Aimee Mann (minus her angrier tendencies) and
Shawn Colvin to
Björk,
Kate Bush, and
the October Project (the band that East Coast singer/songwriter
Mary Fahl belonged to before she became a full-time solo artist). And there are times when
Sun Palace hints at earlier artists such as
the Strawbs and the late
Sandy Denny; with
Sun Palace, Redmann has shown her ability to draw on ‘60s and ‘70s influences as well as ‘80s and ‘90s influences. While
Sun Palace isn't new age per se, Redmann's ethereal leanings have helped her group attract some attention from new age audiences in the eastern United States, namely, the sort of listeners who appreciate
Enya's work. If Redmann has an unofficial assistant in
Sun Palace, it is producer/guitarist John D. Rokosny (who met her in the ‘90s and has worked with
the Smithereens). Rokosny has given Redmann a great deal of encouragement, playing electric and acoustic guitar in
Sun Palace and helping her with the producing.
Redmann is not a native New Yorker; the singer/songwriter grew up in the small Midwestern town of Fish Creek, WI. After spending some time in Boston (where she attended the Berklee College of Music), Redmann moved to the Big Apple, and that was where she made the connections that led to a deal with CBS Records in Italy. Redmann lived in Italy for awhile, but after her association with CBS came to an end, she returned to the Big Apple and eventually founded
Sun Palace, whose first album, Into Heaven, was released in 2000. "Flying," one of the songs on that disc, was used in the documentary Healing from the Inside (which was about women in prison).That disc was followed by
Sun Palace's sophomore outing,
Give Me a Perfect World, which was released independently on Drake Entertainment in early 2005. Designed to Fly was released in 2009. ~ Alex Henderson