Darling Imperial is a Detroit-based band that formed as a septet in the summer of 2007. The band quickly developed a sound that was unique - moving, urgent, and, most clearly at the core, innocent. Their highly melodic pieces combined warm group vocals, swirling layers of guitar, musical bells, keys, and raucous percussion.
The band was founded by current and former members of Detroit-based bands such as Anadonia, Capitol Cities, The Sisters Lucas, and Troy Gregory and The Stepsisters: Brothers Jamiel and Chris Dado, George Jacobsen,Mark Tabor, Sarah Sadovsky, Teri Lynn Walker, and Josh Jarrett.
In a short time, the band wrote and arranged almost 3 hours of seamless music that was performed live in what would be considered atypical Detroit fashion - as accompaniment for two films noted for their ingenuity and creativity, Die Nibelungen: Siegfried and Decasia.
Fritz Lang's Siegfried
For their first project, Darling Imperial wrote a 96-minute musical score to be performed live for a public showing of the 1924 Fritz Lang silent film, "Die Nibelungen: Siegfried". In October 2007, Darling Imperial made it's public debut, performing the entire score in front of over 200 people for free at Peck Park near the Detroit's Cultural Center area. Due to time constraints, keyboardist Teri Lynn Walker left the band soon after the performance.
Decasia
In December 2007, Darling Imperial performed a 72-minute score of original music at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, written to match the bizarre imagery and emotion of Bill Morrison's schizophrenic 2004 film, Decasia.
Recordings
In December 2007, the band entered Tempermill Studios in Ferndale, MI to record two songs, "40 Knots" and "Simple Dreams" for Excerpts from Siegfried, Volume 1, a set of songs from the band's Siegfried score. Excerpts from Siegfried, Volume 1 is available at myspace.com/darlingimperial.
Current Lineup
Soon after the septet-turned-sextet perfomed their Decasia score, creative differences arose and split the band in early 2008. George Jacobsen and Sarah Sadovsky decided to continue on as Darling Imperial, recruiting longtime local musicians and friends to fill-in, including bassist Carl Yute from the Detroit blues-based rock band Hotness, who has since joined Darling Imperial on guitar for two shows. Guitarist Chris Vieau, officially joined the band in February 2008.
