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New Zealand’s Parachute Band will release their new CD Love Without Measure on February 1, but the band and label Integrity Music will give listeners a free preview through a download promotion that includes songs from the project.
Between now and December 31, Integrity Music is giving away nine, free Parachute Band songs at http://www.freeparachutemusic.com. In addition to six songs from the band’s last two critically acclaimed projects Roadmaps & Revelations and Technicolor, the promotion also features three songs from Love Without Measure.
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Love Without Measure is the first self-produced and third studio album for the New Zealand Music Awards People’s Choice winners. The new album features 12 tracks and includes guest vocals from Martin Smith (Delirious?). The CD takes its title from a song lyric (“Savior of the Broken Heart”) that is central to the theme of the record and the band’s new partnership with World Vision. Together, Parachute Band and World Vision are raising awareness and funding for Tubehoneza, a community in Rwanda’s capital city of Kigali. Almost $250,000 has been raised at the Parachute Band’s last four music festival appearances and more than 1,870 children have been sponsored to date.
While finishing the album, the Parachute Band has been touring the U.S., including leading worship with Martin Smith at the Joyce Meyer Conference at Lakewood Church in Houston on November 4. The Kiwi worship band also played U.S. festivals this summer, including Big Ticket Festival, Cornerstone, Lifefest and Lifelight.
Integrity Music first started working with Parachute Band, with a different band line-up, in 2006 for the release of All The Earth. In 2007, Omega Levine (front man) and Sam de Jong (drummer/producer) formed New Zealand’s ‘next gen’ Parachute Band, carrying on the mission of the original band members. They built a team of like-hearted musicians for one purpose: to translate God’s Word into sounds that could be understood on city streets. Since then, they have toured relentlessly in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Rwanda, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, England, Italy, Scotland, Hungary, and Romania.
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The response to these unique Kiwi songs has been strong with churches around the world embracing the new anthems. One of the stand-outs is “Mercy,” an intimate song born out of Omega Levine’s struggle with depression. After hearing the band perform it at New Zealand’s Parachute Music Festival, Casting Crowns recorded the song for their album Until the Whole World Hears. Crowns front man Mark Hall shares his thoughts on this powerful song at http://www.parachutemusic.com/parachuteband/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35:mercycastingcrowns&catid=2:blog&Itemid=5.
But theirs is not only a sound that resonates within the global Christian music industry. Parachute Band speaks straight to their generation, weaving together their own blend of indie-rock that somehow incorporates the diverse stylings of Sigur Ros, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Passion Pit. Their impact led them to win the coveted People’s Choice Award at the mainstream NZ Music Awards in 2008 and prior to that the band received the Gospel Music Association’s “International” Award recognizing their impact on the global Church.
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