Blue Forest Now Available
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and all digital and streaming platforms 
 

 

                                                                            Cover photo by Dona Ann McAdams

"Creatures Of The Wind"
CAROL LIPNIK
with Gordon Beeferman on piano
Friday, April 26th at 7pm
(doors open at 6pm for dinner)
178 Second Ave, NYC
$20 advance/$25 cash at door
$20 minimum
 pangeanyc.com
BUY TICKETS NOW
(212) 995 - 0900
 
 GODDESS OF IMPERFECTION NOW AVAILABLE
 LISTEN AND DOWNLOAD ON BANDCAMP
and all digital and streaming platforms

                                                                        Cover painting by Denise de la Cerda

Acclaimed for her pitch-perfect 4-octave voice and exquisitely crafted art songs, Coney Island native Carol Lipnik’s latest studio album, Goddess Of Imperfection, is now available. A collection of pastoral meditations on loss, hope, chaos, and love, the work features original songs and collaborations with Obie Award-winning playwright/performance artist David Cale and Mexican composer Tareke Ortiz. The majority of songs were developed with pianist Matt Kanelos as part of Lipnik’s two and a half year-long residency at Pangea, a celebrated run that helped establish the NYC boîte as a locus of the downtown cabaret scene. Songs penned with Ortiz were originally developed as part of a Joe’s Pub residency at The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Produced by Jacob Lawson (who produced Lipnik’s celebrated Almost Back To Normal), Goddess of Imperfection combines Lipnik’s uncanny ability to channel the magic and mystery of the natural world with her stunning vocals to pierce through the chaos and anxiety of the recent past and invoke a more hopeful future.
 
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"What separates Ms. Lipnik from every other conjurer of the otherworldly is her phenomenal voice. With a four-octave range, impeccable pitch and several distinct personalities within that voice, Ms. Lipnik evoked singers as disparate as Diamanda Galás, Maude Maggart, Yma Sumac and the yodeling Joni Mitchell. Her instrument is, in a word, phenomenal."
- Stephen Holden, The New York Times

"The soulful spirit of Laura Nyro meets the surrealist warble of Yma Sumac in this alt-cabaret star whose phenomenal four-octave range conveys everything from dark and delusional Alice in Wonderland mushroom fantasies to face-in-the-sidewalk security-state concerns. Lipnik's latest album, the 
ironically titled Almost Back to Normal, blends folk and art music and serves as a siren song to lost cosmopolitans everywhere. Dark, funny, and cosmically aligned, Lipnik augments her original material with smart reinterpretations of tunes like Michael Hurley's "Werewolf," the Talking Heads’ “Heaven,” and American standards like “Moon River"." 
- Richard Gehr, The Village Voice
 

Carol Lipnik's haunting art-song collection
"Almost Back to Normal"
is available
on all digital and streaming platforms
Buy/ Hear Samples Now

                                                                                         Cover photo by Stefan Killen

A collaboration with luminous pianist Matt Kanelos and eclectic violin virtuoso/producer Jacob Lawson, the new album blends lush, mystical soundscapes with hints of the baroque, jaunty Brecht-Weill cabaret, old-school soul music and the avant-garde, all of it imbued with Carol's signature phantasmagoria and droll, absurdist humor. Recorded using an 1895 Steinway D grand piano in the world-class sonics of Peter Karl Studios in Brooklyn, it's a collection of tersely intense song-craft and longer-scale, psychedelically tinged mood pieces. 

“HEAVEN” (single) NOW AVAILABLE on all digital platforms
Buy/Hear Now
 


COMING SOON: Wild Cry (EP) 
 

Carol Lipnik’s voice is a thing of wonder, soaring across four octaves with remarkable fluidity, gently cradling listeners in its sublimely sustained tone. Her songs have an aura of prophecy and the power to wound and heal. A poet of beauty, decay and desolation, Carol sets her lyrics in spare, harmonically rich soundscapes. Mythical imagery—the moon, crows, wolves, boats and journeys—evoke the eternal world of nature and hint at some past or future devastation. Throughout the dreamlike landscapes run subtle, sly allusions to the perils and possibilities of contemporary life, encouraging us to mourn, be comforted, and reach for another ecstatic moment of joy.

"Ms. Lipnik is a musical master of caesura, the subtle pauses between words that can make all the difference in delivering a line. Carol Lipnik is a magical muse of a performer…(she) uses her voice like a spiritual instrument. Backed by a trio of musicians who really get her intentions…the performer enraptured a full house of enthusiastic Carol Lipnik devotees… This artist is well worth your time and money.  As one patron told me afterwards, “She is what we need for our times at the end of the Empire.  She gives us much needed hope.”  Another, visibly moved from the performance, found her “heartbreaking.”"
- Andrew Poretz, Theater Pizzazz

"Earth-mother nightingale Carol Lipnik is a mesmerizing find. She has an ethereal soprano and a hippie air;
she writes fantastical tunes, full of mythic imagery, that carry the listener to worlds unknown. At last, her moment has come."
- James Gavin (biographer of George Michael, Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, and Chet Baker)
 
"Lipnik may be a streetwise Coney Island-bred New Yorker, but her songs are galactic."
- New York Music Daily

2022 Singer/Songwriter Albums You Need to Know:
"If Another Green World-era Brian Eno, Kate Bush, and Robin Holcomb had a three-car pile-up on a New York roadway, it would be possible to imagine the spirit of Carol Lipnik floating away as the accident’s lone survivor. But the secret the NYC avant-cabaret scene has loosely kept for years is that Lipnik also commands a superhuman vocal capability that she exercises with the utmost artistry and a zero-tolerance policy towards unnecessary flash.” -  Jim Allen, Culture Sonar

"With her large vocal range, ethereal vocal quality, and disarming manner delivering poetic and confessional lyrics, singer Carol Lipnik is divinely, startlingly hypnotic. That may sound like hyperbole, but clear your head and take a listen. She pulls you in." 
- Rob Lester, Talkin' Broadway

Read the American Songwriter Interview by Tina Benitez-Eves:
"Carol Lipnik incarnates the beauty of imperfections... Lipnik's full-bodied performance art [is] a sonic spectacle..."
 
 
"You get the sense that both her message and her voice are coming from a very deep, honest and pure place, both anchored and flash.. her voice climbs up into the stratosphere on heavenly steps... Coming from Lipnik, these feats strike one not so much as acts of bravery than as the natural behavior of someone who lives someplace above the clouds where fear can’t reach."
- Trav S.D., Chelsea Now
 

"Carol's haunting voice reveals the sad, tender heart that lies beneath the thick scarred hide of freaks and monsters everywhere"
- John Kruth, Observer.com

"There’s a reason she’s become one of the most talked about singers in decades... it is her crystalline voice that caresses the poetic savvy of her musicianship and the force of her bonhomie that truly sets her apart from every female singer on the club scene today. No one is doing what she does. Her moody charisma sparkles like a canary diamond in the perfect setting. The lady is unique and highly skilled at casting subtle spells through her songs of mystic and obsessive messages on personal journeys and universal topics. Mostly, she is a fierce conduit of fantasy. It takes a lot of talent and intelligence to pull this off with simple grace. Lipnik accomplishes this with ease and no frills. 
- John Hoglund, Cabaret Scenes Magazine

On Goddess of Imperfection:
"The songs are mesmerizing, thoughtful, haunting even at times. They’re meditations that look at ourselves, the people around us, our culture,and songs that push back against the pressures of perfection."
- Joseph Planta, The Commentary


On Goddess of Imperfection:
"The Poacher, (a collaboration) with David Cale is one of Lipnik’s best and most metaphorically-loaded mystery narratives, Kanelos’ gracefully bounding piano anchoring the lush Elizabethan ambience...
Her expansive, psychedelic, bluesy...Hope Street hits just as hard:
Lipnik’s vocals, from muted, flinty, Nina Simone-esque angst, to aching, full blown angst, will give you chills."
- New York Music Daily

"In a world of many imitators, Lipnik is a complete original. Every song is a surprise and every word and gesture adds to the magic." 
- Kevin Scott Hall, EdgeNewYork.com 

"Carol Lipnik is a wonderful amalgam of Joni Mitchell, Lotte Lenya, Theda Bara, Yma Sumac, and Stevie Nicks—but totally original. I... thrilled to her whole show...—with ethereal vocals that went from pop to jazz to operatic trills, all while spanning topics like wolves, sea creatures, bees, and the elements, with heavy amounts of “Carol Lipnik reverb” on the mic. There is no preciousness here—Carol is vocally spot on, totally immersed, and delightfully playful as she lives in the moment of each syllable. A lovely version of “Moon River” was the perfect finale to pulsate my chakras."
-  Michael Musto, Out Magazine

"Attending a Carol Lipnik concert is like going to Church that caters to society's fringe... Whatever she sings, she has an awe inspiring range and a stage presence that is otherworldly... In our age of overproduced, quotidian talent, she is something to cherish.
-Ryan Leeds, Manhattan Digest

I almost feel that the CD (Almost Back To Normal) should come with a warning label about side effects: that the ground and sense and sensitivities will seem to shift, dizziness may occur from being helpless against being hypnotized and haunted, with possible lingering sensations of depression and addiction to the disc. I mean this all as a compliment to the hefty power of the singer's charisma. Her unusual sound, her four-octave voice, radiating both beauty and raw anguish simultaneously, can make us surrender and simply marvel.
Rob Lester - TalkinBroadway.com

"Like a spiderweb, Carol Lipnik is surprisingly strong in her ethereality, maintaining an eerie self-possession as she shares enigmatically spooky folk-art songs in an octave-spanning wail. In her weekly engagement at Pangea, the East Village's cozy new cabaret space, she teams up with pianist Matt Kanelos to share selections from a new album of original music."
- Adam Feldman, Time Out NY

"The breadth of material is surpassed only by Ms. Lipnik’s vocal range: four octaves capable of crystal-shattering heights that enhance the out-of-body experience she seeks to create."
- Lou Montesano, Elmore Magazine
 
"Carol Lipnik might not just be the best singer in New York - she might be the best singer anywhere"
- New York Music Daily

"Carol Lipnik took the stage and we knew we were in for a very different cabaret act – a bit of Kate Bush, a little Yma Sumac, a touch of Klaus Nomi and a soupçon of Stevie Nicks, all combined in a performer who is nonetheless completely original… her ethereal sound immediately cast a spell on the audience… she was mesmerizing, and saved some of her most stunning, soaring high notes for her closer, “My Piano.”"
-Michael Barbieri, Nite Life Exchange

"I had the pleasure of catching Lipnik's act a few weeks ago and I can say with some certainty that I have never seen or heard anyone quite like her…She is a treasure among us." 
- Kevin Scott Hall, Edge Media Network

"Last night at Joes Pub my witcherly mermaid sister Carol Lipnik cast her spell and cast her net pulling up jewels and pearls, and alchemizing the night  - we enthralled by her siren call. It was a  concert of magic,  majestic and healing and uplifting and inspiring, a beautiful band, a divine aural experience aided by Ali Babs on back up vocals with what can only be referred to as crack musicians bringing Carol's other worldly music into this one! 
Honestly folks, Carol is the real deal - it does not get better than this..."
- Penny Arcade 

"Lipnik's songs have a mythic quality…she sang, casting spells upon the audience. Her arms became branches, as she took on tree-like power poses worthy of Usain Bolt or Athena. Her vocal power, enrapturing, had us shaking our heads in admiration and awe."
- Rembert Block, BroadwayWorld.com

 
CAROL LIPNIK/Goddess of Imperfection: An interesting art chick record that's going to be a defining wedge in the modern generation gap. With a tortured artist effect cabaret style, Lipnik tackles the uncertainty of the world and everything in it. Younger tastes raised on beats might not understand the theatrical nature of her work and moldy figs might not get the cutting edge cabaret vibe. With all the professional touches on board, it has the makings of a long legged, underground classic that'll be easier to pass around in the digital age than it would have been in the purely physical media age. No matter how you cut it, the times they are a changing. 
 
"avant-garde sideshow mystic, with tongue held firmly in cheek... her voice... an otherworldly 4-octave instrument that contains multitudes of colors." 
-  Jennie Litt, CabaretHotSpot.com

"I can probably count on 5 fingers or less those who have redefined music in recent memory. How Carol Lipnik is able to transcend each prior album and create new genres is testament to her virtuosity not only as composer, but performer as well. There is a prismatic brilliance to ALMOST BACK TO NORMAL that cannot be categorized; from moments of sweeping grandeur to delicate fragility as fleeting as a snowflake's beauty--all with minimum instrumentation. this is her magnum opus."
- George Maida 
The Electric Croude
WCVE-FM (NPR)

"Carol Lipnik is a disciplined artist in full command of her considerable abilities - and her enraptured audience."
- Downtown Express

"If you are in NYC and you only do one thing culturally go and see Carol Lipnik at Pangea. If you love music and appreciate great songwriting and singing, if you came to NYC to experience magical happenings in tiny rooms that could never happen anyplace else in the world, if you dreamed of intimate nights surrounded by smart, talented, interesting people, this is what you're here for. Now DON'T MISS IT!!!!" 
- Mx. Justin Vivian Bond

"Of all the many ongoing weekly gigs in this city, it’s impossible to think of a more happening one right now than this show...
If state-of-the-art songcraft and magical voices are your thing, miss this at your peril. Years from now, people will be saying they were here even if they weren’t."
- New York Music Daily

Performers light up New York in all their unique and subversive glory. If you see that longtime entertainers like Amber Martin, Julie Atlas Muz, Carol Lipnik and Justin Vivian Bond are performing somewhere, just show up!
-Michael Musto, Chelsea Community News

"Sometimes she sounds like an acolyte of a Celtic goddess, and at other times like someone who’s benefited from private vocal coaching by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi...Lipnik’s performances are consistently sure-voiced and engaging. The woman has undeniable charisma... she needs to be seen to be believed.."
 - Mark Dundas Wood, BistroAwards.com

A must...MUST...SEE & HEAR. Carol Lipnik is a treasure that is soaring and inspiriring. Treat yourself and take that evening out in NYC to be taken away to other worldly places...And she does...Love her madly....
- Joey Arias

LISTEN TO CAROL'S CONVERSATION WITH JUSTIN SAYRE ON JUSTIN'S SPARKLE & CIRCULATE PODCAST
(OR DOWNLOAD)
 

"Singer/songwriter Carol Lipnik doesn’t need a giant metallic lion and a football game or an elaborate The Sound of Music-themed extravaganza to make a memorable impact. Her incandescent voice gets the job done with no need for gimmicks."
-Beck Feibelman
The Clyde Fitch Report

"With a four-octave voice and a madhouse sense of wonder, perhaps an influence of her Coney Island rearing, Carol Lipnik is not your usual cup of tea. She is without peers... Carol and Matt's musical collaboration can be experienced during their weekly Sunday residency at Pangea.
New Yorkers? Run don't walk! Out-of-towners? Book your flight! Welcome to the wonderfully eccentric world of Carol Lipnik".​
-TALK MUSIC TALK with Boice
Listen to our conversation with Boice on his FAB podcast! We played a few tunes unplugged, too!

"Within the first few bars of her opening song at Pangea, Carol Lipnik effectively begins to weave a sort of sonic cocoon that gently envelops and contains her audience. By the song’s end that vessel is complete and her listeners are rapt: warm, safe, suspended, and ready for something magical to happen. It does!.."
-The Lo-Down, News From The Lower East Side

Read Joseph Keckler's wonderful recap of Carol's Pangea show, part of a weekend review which includes Björk's MoMA show -- and Bjork's surprise appearance in the audience at Pangea for Carol's show! 
You never know who's going to show up when Carol Lipnik holds court in the intimate show room at Pangea. - Earl Dax

"Carol and her pianist, Matt Kanelos, take me to a calm, seraphic, whimsical place where I know everything will be okay."
- James Gavin (biographer of Peggy Lee, Lena Horne, and Chet Baker)

"Carol Lipnik is that rare bird, the complete artist, with the soaring voice of a Dawn Upshaw, and the probing musical intelligence
of Joni MItchell." 
          - John Kelly

"One of New York's FINEST singers and most original songwriters!!! 
...Carol's new songs, which are truly art songs, set in the jewel like quality of her voice reach such levels of glorious individuality that we were all gobsmacked."
         - Penny Arcade

"Carol Lipnik sings in the dream."
- Yoshiko Chuma

Carol Lipnik's music is haunting - as if I were walking in a misty fairyland forest.
- Zora Rasmussen 
                   
"Carol embodies all we love about Coney Island, not only in her incredible singing voice and musical style, but in her personal dedication to the eerie and fantastic." - Richard Eagan

"The Barbra Streisand for the weird." - Marilyn Cvitanic

2020 Global Recovery Initiatives Foundation Sponsorship 

Broadway World 2015 New York Cabaret Award
For Best Alternative Cabaret Show

2014 Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant for music

Carol has a poem that was commissioned by 
Parachute Literary Arts (as part of their Coney Island Poetry Map public installation) on the base of The Parachute Jump.
 

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