All posts by Marshall Cullen

Tim Walker Releases ‘Love Is For The Young (At Heart)’

August 16, 2024 Marshall Cullen

Love is For the Young (at Heart) is not a lovesong – it’s a song about love. It pictures the joy especially of young love, when it’s all blue sky. But cupid’s arrow is delightfully indifferent to many things – appearance, age, even intellect!

Tim: ‘The song was inspired by a couple of teenagers I saw skipping past me down a busy footpath on a crowded Saturday night, holding hands and singing: the guy was short, wearing ill-fitting jeans; the girl looked like someone from the bridal party out of the film Muriel’s Wedding. They were an odd couple, it’s true, but they had the world at their feet. King and Queen. Later seen eating pizza together down the street.’

Pilot is about the post-pandemic urge to travel and get away from all the traumas of 2020-22, its covid-19 confinements, and the resulting overseas travel boom we have now. The song’s bridge reveals the other side of the coin – what we hope to escape to: freedom and “good times”.

Get On, Saturday Night is an upbeat tribute to all the great Saturday nights, and is perhaps therefore the cousin to track 1. Streets Of Rome is a re-release from the 2019 album Bridge of Angels. The album and that track specifically, was inspired by a trip to Rome (the location of the bridge) in 2018.

Tim Walker is a singer-songwriter now based in Adelaide (ex-Sydney). His indie electric-folk/pop style reflects a city perspective, but with country, rock and jazz influences and universal themes. He began as a folkie at school, and continues its idea of personal stories, using electric rock guitars thrown in. As a tertiary student in Adelaide he was in a small country rock act doing mainly covers. Now as a soloist he is at his most prolific.

He moved to Sydney for work and continued playing after hours in many venues across town before releasing his first album, Fellow Traveller, with Foghorn Records in 2008. He followed this with a series of singles, then returned to Adelaide in 2018. He released the album Bridge of Angels in 2019, again through Foghorn Records.

He has played at several major music festivals including Peat’s Ridge and the Sydney Blues and Roots Festival Windsor (NSW), and the Port Noarlunga Blues Festival (SA).

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Big Merino Releases Single ‘Ain’t No Shame’

August 13, 2024 Marshall Cullen

Alex: ‘I’ve always been fascinated by people who are able to move through life and experience unguarded joy, it’s something that I’ve learned but it doesn’t come naturally to me and I like that idea of learning to let go of something that you love’.

During the recording process the band tried to recapture the spirit of the legendary Sun Studio recordings. Working with Phil Punch provided the perfect opportunity to try that approach especially as he had built equipment for the iconic recording space.

Formed in 2017, Big Merino play original music that blurs the lines between country, blues, roots, rock and pop. Despite an obvious passion for what’s often called ‘Americana’, their songs somehow manage to be very personal and quintessentially Australian – the words and sound shaped by the landscape and their own stories.

Their live sound is a classic combination of acoustic and electric guitars, vocals, bass and drums. Their recordings are fleshed out with multiple guitar layers, gospel style harmonies, Hammond organ, piano, horns and percussion.

In 2018 the band released their debut album ‘Suburban Wildlife’, made two cinematic film clips with director Alan Harca, and performed all around Sydney. The band has done numerous Interviews & live-to-air performances including ABC 702 & RN, 2SER Dirt Music, Radio Skid Row, Eastside Radio, Aussie Music Weekly and 2BBB. The single ‘Black Cockatoos’ was top 10 on AMRAP Metro and Regional playlists.

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Fiona Joy Hawkins & Rebecca Daniel ‘Uncertainty’ (Official Video)

Video August 8, 2024 Marshall Cullen

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Gareth Koch & All India Radio Release Single ‘A Song For Brian Eno’

August 2, 2024 Marshall Cullen

A Song for Brian Eno began life with Gareth recording a series of wine glasses (glass harmonica) tuned to differing pitches. The notes of each glass are tuned by adding specific amounts of liquid to each glass, and played in a circular motion with a moistened finger. In total seven glasses were recorded and these form the basis of the work.

Inspired by Brian Eno’s famous 1978 recording Music for Airports, this recording sits squarely in the ambient genre, a type of music intended to induce calm and a space for contemplation.

The track is expanded on synthesisers by ambient masters All India Radio. The final touches are added by Gareth on his signature classical guitar for Martin (All India Radio) to mix and master.

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About Gareth

Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a sizeable repertory across multiple genres spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects, rock & songwriting. He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.

Gareth is involved with many cross genre projects & has released a succession of collaborative albums with Martin Kennedy & with ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kilbey (The Church). His recent release ‘The Guitar Player’ received a coveted 5 star review from The Sydney Morning Herald. Gareth’s current output has a strong rock bias with classical overtones & his writing is increasingly focussed on the ethereal nature of music.

About All India Radio

A monument to the creativity and vision of songwriter Martin Kennedy, All India Radio is a fusion of psychedelia, prog rock, ambience, and pure dreamy pop creates something greater than the sum of its parts.

All India Radio have created shimmering aural edifices that cross genres and defy easy definition across a staggering 30+ releases since the late 1990s. All India Radio albums have featured cameos from Kennedy’s favourite artists over the years – Steve Kilbey from The Church, prog metal legend Devin Townsend, Ed Kuepper (The Saints) Graham Lee (The Triffids) and David Bridie (Not Drowning Waving). Martin’s music has featured in CSI, One Tree Hill, The Lying Game, Emmerdale, Bondi Rescue and many more.

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Silphie Releases New Single ‘Mea Lux’

July 26, 2024 Marshall Cullen

After separation and misunderstandings Sulpicia and her secret lover reunite. As she reflects on the reunion Sulpicia regrets that she was on her guard. “My love, my light” if she could go back in time she would stay the night. Mea lux is the penultimate poem in the Garland series written by Sulpicia and sets up the story of the final poem “Tandem venit amor” (At last love has come) where Sulpicia and her lover Cerinthius finally come together.

Michaele Archer is an Australian classically trained singer and composer and has performed nationally and internationally in Opera, Oratorio and concert. Michaele loves collaboration and unusual projects and highlights have included performances of “Brackish Songs” by indigenous composer Christopher Sainsbury and the first live performances of Schubert’s “Erlking” with a sand animation by Californian creator Benny Zelkowicz. Her original recording project “Galatea” was released in 2019.

Silphie is a collaboration with Michaele Archer (composer/vocal and harmonium), Rachel Whealy (cello), Giuseppe Zangari (guitar) and Gab Steele (viola). The name Silphie comes from the ancient world’s herb Silphium which was used for everything from perfume and cooking to medicine. The latest recording project by Silphie, “Garland, the love poems of Sulpicia” is inspired by rich, raw sounds of analogue, alto instruments and ancient Latin poetry.

Sulpicia is a female voice that was lost for many years and her 6 love poems form the text for this project. Sulpicia lived around the time of Augustus in the first century BCE and her work is one of very few written by a Roman woman to survive. Her poems were published in a collection by the Roman male poet Tibullus and were originally attributed to him. Sulpicia’s Garland of poems tells the story of a secret love affair.

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Fiona Joy Hawkins & Rebecca Daniel Release Album ‘Enchantment’

July 25, 2024 Marshall Cullen

The album release of their latest opus ‘Enchantment’ on July 26th
Classical Pianist Fiona Joy Hawkins and violinist Rebecca Daniel

Enchantment, the latest project from pianist Fiona Joy Hawkins and violinist Rebecca Daniel, follows in the musical footsteps of their previous collaborations. This time the duo pays homage to the great impressionist painters and composers. Throughout the album. works and track titles reference great artists like Satie, Monet, and Van Gogh. The music is impressionistic, beautiful and relaxing as if Debussy’s ghost was in the room.

Click here for the Full One Sheet Here for all the new details

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Midnight Sky

Mountains Ablaze

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Montana Release EP ‘Nearer’ (2024 Remaster)

July 4, 2024 Marshall Cullen

Montana was formed in Sydney in 1998 by Paul Scott, Ken Stewart, Steve Melville and Michelle Margherita. They began playing at friend’s parties and around the Sydney inner-city indie circuit, sharing the bill with Mr Blonde, The John Reed Club, Youth Group and 78 Saab.

Within a few months they had booked time at Damien Gerard Studios to begin work with legendary in-house engineer Russell Pilling, the tracks recorded including the debut single ‘Koolest Band’, formed part of their debut EP.

Koolest Band received significant airplay on independent stations across Australia and national broadcaster JJJ put the song on high rotation. Interest from US labels resulted in the band playing shows in Los Angeles, including a spot at the Whiskey a Go Go and at SXSW.

Following the release of Koolest Band EP and another year of constant gigging in Australia and the US, the three piece (Michelle Margherita, Steve Melville and Paul Scott) felt confident enough in the studio to stretch out sonically. Tracks for the follow up were recorded at Velvet Sounds studio under Pitt Street in the heart of Sydney.

There were many talented people involved in the recording of the Nearer EP, but special mention must be made of Tony Wall and Adrian Grigorieff who tracked most of the songs and the late, great Craig Porteils who mixed them. The EP sold out its first pressing in less than a week, causing a few headaches for their small indie label Velvet Lounge and debuted at number 9 in the indie charts.

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Gareth Koch Releases Single ‘Song For George Harrison’

July 4, 2024 Marshall Cullen

The second in Gareth’s dedication series and with a stunning review already live thanks to Big Take Over magazine in NYC.

“The song itself is a lustrous jaunt. clocking in around three and half minutes, the instrumental piece is acoustic, with strumming guitars and lithe bass keeping the beat. ” David Browne HERE

The inspiration for Song for George Harrison was to channel and imagine the spirit of George and infuse Beatles DNA into the compositional process. The mood is an informal jam vibe, as if the studio producers are absent, but microphones are left on with tape rolling while George plays and improvises with friends.

Gareth opens the track with George’s beloved instrument, the ukulele, supported by a keyboard mellotron sound subtly referencing a partial Beatles tune. The sitar Gareth plays is a vintage Sri Lankan instrument, played in reverse in some of the mixes, as a tribute to the spirit of experimentation of the 1960’s Abbey Rd Studios.

The three mixes reference the evolution of 60’s mixing technology, with the Spectre Mix taking a deep dive into the massive and live ‘Wall of Sound’ aesthetic, faithfully recreated with period correct vintage studio and live equipment from the Beatles’ heyday.

About Gareth Koch
Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a sizeable repertory across multiple genres spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects, rock & songwriting. He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.

Born in Milan, Gareth began his musical studies on piano and clarinet, and at age 12 was accepted into the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before winning scholarships for advanced guitar study at The Royal Madrid Conservatorium & the Vienna Academy of Music. He holds a PhD in Music & has lectured in music across Australian & European universities.

In 2002 Gareth formed the first guitar supergroup with Karin Schaupp & The Grigoryan Brothers, Slava & Leonard. Saffire – The Australian Guitar Quartet soared to #1 on the Classical Music Charts and even featured on ARIA pop charts. The quartet released a total of 3 best-selling albums & was Australia’s biggest selling classical act for several years.

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