The TORI Camera Ia Available Now!

The limited edition “TORI” camera set with the “From Russia With Love…” double live CD we told you about last week is ON SALE NOW.

Let the madness begin! At $185 buckaroos with only 2000 available, it’ll go fast.

Also, in case you haven’t already noticed, toriamos.com has been redesigned and relaunched. The new site is quite nice! Clean and simple and well-organized! They’re still working on getting everything updated and spiffed up so keep an eye out over there!

New Book Focuses On Tori's Studio Process

Jake Brown, the author of a series of books called “In the Studio,” has written a book focusing on Tori Amos. Each book visits a different musician (Rick Rubin, Motorhead, and Kanye West have all been featured) in the studio, and describes the recording process. Brown’s style is pretty readable, despite the technical details he packs into these books. Tori Amos: In the Studio is available for pre-order now, and is scheduled for release May 1, 2011. Thanks to MiMi for the tip.

News Flash: Limited Edition "TORI" Camera Set And Exclusive Double CD!

Ooh, ooh, ooh! Here’s a special treat for Toriphiles in time for the holidays: a limited edition Lomographic 35mm Lomography Diana F+ camera set called “TORI”! Only 2000 of these signature edition cameras have been made and each includes a custom ”China” edition wide-angle and close-up lens set, appropriately named “Distance” and “Close”. (How cute is that?)

The camera set also includes an exclusive unreleased double CD “From Russia With Love…” recorded live in Moscow on September 3rd, 2010. All CD’s in this limited release have been autographed by Tori. The set comes in a die-cut piano box and contains 1 of 5 special photographs taken of Tori during her Moscow trip using the TORI camera. There’s also a roll of 120 Film included to get you started.

Full details are expected early next week, so don’t spend all your money on Black Friday!

In The Studio With The Metropole Orkest...

Last weekend, the Metropole Orkest, with whom Tori will be performing in Amsterdam on October 8th, announced on Facebook that they would be in the studio with Tori this week. After some initial confusion, they’ve clarified that they are working on new arrangements of several of Tori’s songs, prepared by John Philip Shenale, one of Tori’s long-time collaborators, especially for the performance.

It’s still not clear whether or not these sessions are for a studio release or are just rehearsal recordings to work out the kinks for the performance. While the latter does seem more likely at this point, the Orkest has released orchestral albums of the music of pop musicians. For instance, Moke, a Dutch band who will be performing with the Metropole the night after Tori’s concert, will be releasing an album recorded with them earlier this year. So, it certainly is possible that a commercial release with Tori will evolve out of this project but whether one does or not remains to be seen.

In any case, keep an eye on the Orkest’s Facebook and Twitter as they have been posting updates and some photos from their time in the studio this week.

Update: More clarification from the Metropole Orkest about this week’s studio sessions:

To all you Tori fans out there let’s clear one thing up, we’re only rehearsing for next weeks’ concert. So don’t get your hopes up for a new CD!

Barnes & Noble: The Return of the Pre-Order

In the latest — and hopefully final — chapter of the Barnes & Noble exclusive pre-order for the Tori Amos – Live From the Artists Den DVD, several people (including myself) have received 30 day extension approval requests from B&N. In the note, they apologize for being unable to fulfill the pre-order and explains that unless ones approves the extension within 24 hours, the order will be canceled.

This is all very mysterious as several others canceled their pre-orders, reordered the DVD and have already gotten shipment notices!

However, a quick call to their customer service number shed some light on the mystery: turns out that the pre-orders are shipped from one location where they do not have the DVD in stock. Meanwhile, new orders were being shipped from another location where the item is. Why they couldn’t just automatically change the source location for the pre-orders, the world may never know…but it does mean that those who are still hanging on to your pre-orders, you might as well re-order (or pick up a copy at a store) and, once you get a shipment notice, go ahead and cancel the pre-order.

Barnes & Noble Canceling Some Artists Den DVD Pre-orders

Despite our hope that the shipment delay notices we reported on earlier this week did not foreshadow problems with the Tori Amos: Live From the Artists Den DVD pre-order, it sadly seems that this has not turned out to be the case.

Many people have let us know they received order cancellation notices from Barnes & Noble today saying that they will be unable to fulfill the pre-order. Mind you, not everyone has gotten these notices and, in fact, a few have either received their pre-order or at least have gotten a shipment notice since the delay notice. (For those keeping score at home, I’ve yet to receive either a shipment or cancellation notice since the delay e-mail earlier this week.)

Meanwhile, many Barnes & Noble stores continue to have the title in stock (and more than a few people who got the delay notice have canceled their pre-orders and picked the DVD up at the store) so it appears to be a case of Barnes & Noble taking more pre-orders than they could deliver on.

Update: The DVD can still be ordered online from Barnes & Noble and at least one person has reported getting a shipment notice already! Stranger and stranger…

If we get any information about this from either Barnes & Noble or The Artists Den about this situation, we’ll pass the details along.

Thanks to the many of you who got in touch with us about this matter!

Barnes & Noble Artists Den DVD Pre-Order Shipments Delayed

Several people — including myself — have received notices from Barnes & Noble that shipment of their Tori Amos – Live from the Artists Den DVD pre-orders has been delayed. Pre-orders are expected to be 1-5 days late, so it’s not too long of a delay. And, as we’ve heard from more than a few folks who have been purchased the DVD in Barnes & Noble stores, we know copies of the DVD are out there and hope the shipping delay will be minimal and is not indicative of a bigger problem.

In any case, unfortunate as that may be, the actual episode of the program will be airing on PBS stations this week so if you are one of the unlucky folks in the this boat, you should at least be able to watch the show before too long!

The Week of the Artists Den

Just a quick reminder that the episode of Live from the Artists Den featuring Tori is slated to air on PBS stations across the United States during this week. In most markets, the program airs towards the end of the week (Thursday in Philadelphia, Friday in New York City, Sunday in Los Angeles), but check your local PBS station’s listing to make sure.

If you can’t wait that long, a commercial DVD of this performance, which includes two songs not shown during the broadcast, is released today through Barnes & Noble.

Live From The Artists Den DVD Details

Update: Mere minutes after we finished this article, the DVD release details were posted to ToriAmos.com and Everything Tori, along with the pre-order link to Barnes & Noble! Shazam! (Now if we could only get some information about that fabled American Doll Posse tour DVD!)

Several music and entertainment news sites including Altsounds, Lena Lamoray and The Music Slut are now reporting details about the upcoming Tori Amos: Live from the Artists Den DVD release.

According to what appears to be a press release from The Artists Den, the limited edition DVD will be released on July 13th, the same week the episode premieres on public television, with an exclusive pre-order through Barnes & Noble. It’s not clear if Barnes & Noble will be the exclusive retailer for the DVD or not. Other Artists Den releases are available elsewhere so we’d guess that would eventually be the case for this DVD as well but we will have to wait and see.

The release will include all 12 songs performed at the taping (not just the 10 in the broadcast) and also feature an interview conducted by noted music journalist and critic Alan Light, a tour of the Park Avenue Armory’s Veterans Room lead by Tor and the directory of the Armoryi, a hardbound scrapbook featuring behind-the-scenes photos of the event and a history of the venue, and a print of a hand-written postcard by Tori.

As the text of the Lena Lamoray and Altsounds articles is identical, it would seem that their source is a sneak preview press release about the DVD so we would expect an official announcement about this on The Artists Den website and Barnes & Noble to appear soon.

Thanks to six58, Eliot and Armen for the tips!

Update: According to The Artists Den (and despite the claim of Barnes & Noble to the contrary), this DVD is region-free (Region 0) so it will be playable on any DVD player that supports NTSC. Thanks to elasia for doing the legwork to find that out!

Bösendorfer Gives Midwinter Graces Some Love

Bösendorfer has reported on the release of Midwinter Graces, in light of the fact that Tori used Bösendorfer piano while recording the record. The brief article doesn’t reveal any new details and covers many of Tori’s talking points about the album: the Solstice being the celebration of the return of light to the world, her desire to be inclusive and that many of the traditional carols of the season had their starts as drinking songs and sea shanties. Still, it’s good to see them give the record some coverage.

Thanks to Steev and Mark-Alexis for bringing this to our attention!