Now based in Birmingham, AL, producer and singer/songwriter Armand Margjeka originally grew up in communist Albania, and although his native country’s regime was brutally oppressive, a young Margjeka grew up on American music – in particular rock music on cassette tapes that were smuggled into the country.

As a producer and singer/songwriter Margjecka has developed a reputation for his fascination for the process of making a great album – after all, the great albums are a combination of the intentional, the incidental, and the accidental sounds that wind up capturing the essence and soul of an album. His sophomore effort, Hummingbird which will see a June 10th release through PIPEANDGUN and Communicating Vessels not only continues Margjecka’s reputation for concerning himself with the entire recording and writing process, it was originally conceived as an exhibition of ten very different recording sessions with different musicians, produced by the three-time Grammy winner, Darrell Throrp, who has worked with the likes of Radiohead, Beck, Outkast and Gnarls Barkley. 

“Hummingbird,” the album title track, is a hushed but sincere love song that somehow reminds me a little bit of Pete Yorn’s fantastic Music for the Morning After in the sense that it sounds like a bit like a waking dream, tinged with a bit of nostalgia for a past that now is becoming increasingly distant.