Gareth Koch new album The Guitar Player

October 6, 2020 Marshall Cullen

GARETH KOCH NEW ALBUM THE GUITAR PLAYER

Following the EP Code Blue earlier this year and taking time out from multiple Steve Kilbey projects, Gareth has put together this superb selection of his classical guitar work recorded in two European locations, a remote Austrian village chapel & a baroque Viennese monastery, while living in Europe for over two decades.

A curious & ancient bond unites the selections on this recording. Performed entirely on the ‘Spanish’ guitar, these works have been moulded by the traditions of Spanish classical music & the passionate folk art of flamenco. The musicological connection between folk & classical music is well documented, a phenomenon in which composers incorporate the spirit of folk music into their work. Spanish music is often imbued with the fire of ‘Gypsy song’, whose powerful artistic reach extends well beyond Spain.

ARIA Award winner Gareth Koch is uniquely placed as an interpreter of Spanish music. Trained in Vienna & Madrid, he brings both classical & flamenco perspectives to his interpretation. He is joined on tracks 3, 9 & 12 by Viennese cellist Herwig Tachezi – former Principal Cellist of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

‘The Guitar Player’ is an entirely natural acoustic recording using direct source microphones and purely the ambient spaces of the chapel’s thereby avoiding any extra processing.

Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a diverse repertory across multiple albums spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects & songwriting. He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.
Born in Milan, Koch 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 a scholarship for advanced guitar study at the Vienna Academy of Music. He holds a PhD in Music.
In 2002 Koch formed what might be termed the first guitar supergroup. Saffire – The Australian Guitar Quartet soared to number 1 on the classical music charts and appeared on the pop charts. The quartet released a total of 3 best-selling albums.
Gareth is involved with many cross genre projects & in 2020 released two collaborative albums with ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kilbey (The Church).

The Guitar Player is OUT NOW – September 18 via MGM
All DSP’s and CD’s in store from October

Connect with Gareth Koch:

For further information, Files, CD and Interview Requests please contact:
Marshall Cullen at Foghorn Media
0416 143 030
marshall@foghornrecords.net

News and Touring

Steve Kilbey New Solo Album – Eleven Women

September 4, 2020 Marshall Cullen

Steve Kilbey New Solo Album- Eleven Women

Update

Steve’s Next Live Venue show

‘STEVE KILBEY (THE CHURCH), AND HIS WINGED HEELS- GARETH KOCH (SAFFIRE) & ROGER MASON (ICEHOUSE) PERFORM
“SONGS FROM ANOTHER LIFE”
LIVE AT BRASS MONKEY CRONULLA
FRIDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2020

Get tickets for the early session at 530pm DINNER AND SHOW
or the late session at 8:30pm DINNER AND SHOW

Steve Kilbey has created a fine new album for 2020. His first solo release for an astoundingly creative year reveals a dazzling array of songs brimming with ideas, personality & effervescence. The collection is at once whimsical yet personal, and in a masterful sleight of hand Kilbey’s Eleven Women are not quite as one might expect.

Eleven Women is full of melodic invention & lyrical surprises. Singling out tracks for special mention is frankly impossible since this album consists entirely of highlights. Amongst these bijous however the timelessly beautiful Think of You shines brightly. This song has the unmistakeable stamp of eternity & evokes a sense of having existed since music began.

September 4 Foghorn/MGM

Hear it now

Read the Rolling Stone Review

Plus the RS Interview

Watch the Zoom Interview with WhatsMyScene

and for some insights into #thechurch as well read this great interview from backseat mafia

Wanna see Steve play Sheba Chiba Live Acoustic- just click here

Connect with Steve

News and Touring

Margaret Anne and The Rock It Man Don’t Look Back

August 28, 2020 Marshall Cullen

After releasing the inspiring and amazing Americana song and video clip ‘Soul Laid Bare’ at the end of last year, Margaret Anne and The Rock It Man have released two exciting new songs. ‘Don’t Look Back’ co-written with Shane Nicholson and ‘My Mumma’ written while watching the passing of her mother 2 years ago.

Just 2 months after leaving a 20-year marriage, ‘Don’t Look Back’ was written with country artist Shane Nicholson at The Dag Sheep Station in Nundle, near Tamworth. While sitting on the porch of a farmhouse, Shane helped Margaret Anne peel back the layers to look deep within. Doug Weaver (aka the Rock It Man) produced and played not one but all of instruments on the song.
The result is a song that examines the essence of her marriage, the struggle to get it right, the decision to move on from the wreckage and not look back.

‘My Mumma’ was written on the back of a bereavement envelope in about 10 minutes. When faced with the death of her mother, Margaret fell back into childhood, writing this emotional ballad of grief while waiting and watching her pass away. Played by her brother, the accompanying guitar forms the song into both a collection of vulnerable memories and a haunting goodbye.

Connect with Margaret Anne:

News and Touring

A chat with Adam Blacksmith

August 19, 2020 Marshall Cullen

On the eve of the first single ‘I Hope I’m Wrong’ from his forthcoming album ‘Blind to the Sea’ we sat down (via zoom) to chat with Adam about all things musical -

Tell us about the moment you decided to become a song writer? What did your family/friends have to say about it?

I was driving in my car In 1999 when I heard”Asleep in Perfection” by Augie March on JJJ. I had to stop the car to take it all in. I had loved folk music for years but had lost faith in the radio to play bands with the lyrical substance of Dylan, Joni and The Tea Party until that moment. Hearing it renewed my faith in radio and music at the same time and it gave me the hope that I could transform my poetry into music.

All my friends at the time were in metal bands and were very supportive of my direction and my family felt the same, however, If I am honest, I don’t think they believed I’d stick with it.

Who are your early influences?

I tend to have an “all or nothing” approach to most things, not excluding music. I grew up listening to heavy metal (and still do). I was always drawn to death metal bands such as Carcass and Morbid Angel because they combined lyricism with aggression and technical mastery. I harbored a dream to either sing or play guitar in a grindcore band however didn’t really have the dexterity or disposition. I was simulaltaneously drawn to folk artists, such as Dylan, Joni Mitchel, George Harrison, Nick Drake and later Augie March as they sang about philosophy and expressed emotions through their music that I had trouble expressing myself.

Tell us a little about your writing process, how does a song come along? What gets you going creatively?

I always have a guitar with me in my loungeroom. Mostly I just muck around with chords and sounds and record anything that I like on my phone, about one in fifty ideas stick. When I’m stretched for ideas I attempt to learn a cover song and usually get some ideas from there.

Lyrically, I am inspired by my work in the jail system, from borrowed words I have jotted from Dickens novels or Audio books and from documentaries. I have a phone full of ideas and musings that may or may not find their way into a song. My latest album features two songs inspired from the plight of Aboriginal Austrlians which have a particular significance to me after learning of my own Aboriginality in more recent years.

What is the first record you bought and why?

Dr. Feelgood by Motley Crew. I had just started earning money with my first casual job at Target while I was still in high-school. I couldn’t afford the $26 for the CD so I convinced my sister to go halves. Given she was listening to U2 at the time, I always knew it was going to be mine. Technically I still owe my sister $13

What current/new Artists/Bands inspire you and why?

Augie March, The Drones, Marlon Williams, Julia Jacklin, CW Stoneking, Ben Howard and High Tension.

I absolutely love the lyrics of Glen Richards and Augie March and the Raw unapologetic energy replete with Australiana that the Drones bring to the table. I guess the commonality of all these artists is their brilliant lyricism. High Tension on the other hand are just phenominal live and a must see…

Stream the new single here – out Friday August 21 via MGM

Connect with Adam

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Andrew Barnum New Single – Dear Ancestor

July 30, 2020 Marshall Cullen

Andrew Barnum’s Single Dear Ancestor

Andrew Barnum is a singer-songwriter, whose musical style is a combination of folk-based Aus alt-folk and home-pop-tronic-rock. Welcome to a visually transporting road-trip of the Australian experience today.The song-writing-performance duo of Andrew & Lissa Barnum, aka Vitabeats, had a national hit with ‘Boom Box’ (Hot/EMI) in 1985. This was followed by singles ‘Audrey’ and ‘Build it Right’ from the album ‘Spot the Spanner.’ The band stopped recording and touring in 1988. Andrew never stopped writing, recording and performing his own songs.Andrew’s current sound is a blend of the acoustic and electronic arcane – forgotten analogue technologies, merging with digital interfaces and an array of musicians, including vocals from Lissa and Cayenne Barnum, all coming together in accomplished composer-producer Boris Hunt’s Black Rabbit Studio in Hartley, NSW.

Dear Ancestor is a personal letter to our past about the future.
It’s a lament to someone trusted and wise, asking for a way to awaken with purpose.
Like the Zen master, it’s not with a gentle nudge, but with a crack from their stick.
The track was recorded live with Boris Hunt, Lucius Culliton, and Andy Gordon,
at Black Rabbit Big Room, Kanimbla NSW Australia. Mastered by Nat Love.

The overall sound has a a dark, smoky, haunting lyrical quality. Musically, it speaks volumes with a sense of longing, lingering, and meandering, that is full of romance.

Video click image below – (recently premiered on Scenestr magazine)

The video clip was a collaboration with students from Billy Blue College (Andy Marsh, Christine Kemeny, Bailey Sii, and Tony Taulaga) with Lissa Barnum’s inventive creative direction and videography of Andrew. All the footage was shot in 2 isolated locations, Sydney and the South Coast (Lissa), then edited with additional animated effects. The creative direction was based on the silhouette style of Indonesian shadow puppetry. The team set out to create the smoky, burnt atmosphere of the recent bushfires, the spirit of the Ancestor is represented by Australian birds. Special thanks to Christine Kemeny for the final production.

Stream the new single here:

Social media links
www.facebook.com/andrewbarnumsongs
www.twitter.com/andrew_barnum

Official site

https://www.andrewbarnum.com

News and Touring

Fiona Joy Hawkins New Album Moving Through Worlds

July 30, 2020 Marshall Cullen

Fiona Joy Hawkin’s Presents New Album and Video
Moving Through Worlds

As the Australian Bushfires crept toward her rural home, Fiona Joy Hawkins turned to her Stuart & Sons piano to do what has always bought her solace: writing music. After crafting 4 songs that she later marketed as fundraisers for firefighters and wildlife rescue – and which are included on this album – she began final preparations on Moving Through Worlds.

Although she began recording and conceptualizing the album three years ago, one could say it is an album 44-years in the making. One of the more classical-crossover pieces is “For the Roses” which a 12-year-old Fiona wrote for her Grandmother’s funeral.

Fiona says, “I believe music is a gift from another world, from ancestors of the past communicating to inspire and give us hope. Music is a universal language that connects us without prejudice, it speaks to us all equally, yet is received with great variation. My wish is to open a few more hearts to the power of music. Now more than ever we need the connection to our past to find the pathway to our future.”

The 14-track album was beautifully produced by Will Ackerman (Founder Windham Hill Records) and Tom Eaton. As per her usual style, Fiona defies genre by bringing Classical, Contemporary Piano, and New Age instrumentals together to create something uniquely her own, and reflective of all the worlds that she has moved through so elegantly while this powerful music gathered in her soul.

Fiona Joy Hawkins is an Australian Pianist, Composer and Singer who enjoys and regularly tours China and the USA and is also a member of the Contemporary instrumental group FLOW (Fiona Joy, Lawrence Blatt, Jeff Oster, Will Ackerman). Fiona Joy Hawkins is best known for her romantic, melodic songs and lush arrangements. A prolific composer, she has always been interested in creating music that evokes images, emotions and tells stories.

Fiona Joy is known for ‘Grace’, her song on a Grammy Winning album in 2014 and for her extensive catalogue produced by Will Ackerman (Founder Windham Hill Records). In 2016 she won two categories of the Independent Music Awards at the Lincoln Centre in New York and has been awarded Best Piano Album by International Radio (ZMR Awards) for several of her albums. Nominated alongside Pete Seeger for Best LIVE Performance Album in the Independent Music Awards,Fiona was an ARIA Finalist in Australia in 2008. Fiona works with Australian piano maker Stuart and Sons, and has several albums with Blue Coast Records (content partners with Sony Music for hi-resolution releases).

Watch the Video (Premiered on Scenstr) for Calling County Clare here

In the case of Fiona Joy Hawkins’ latest collection Moving Through Worlds, there are glorious exceptions where it’s not hyperbole in any sense and fits today, tomorrow and for all…let’s just say I can’t imagine there ever being a time in the future when listening to this deeply personal, socially conscious, stylistically expansive 14-track musical narrative would grip me any less than it does today, in the midst of world gone mad 2020. – Jonathan Widran, JWVibe

“Moving Through Worlds” is OUT NOW (July 7) via Little Hartley Music.

Streaming

ALL OTHER DSP’s Click Here

Connect with Fiona Joy:

For further information, Files, CD and Interview Requests please contact:
Marshall Cullen at Foghorn Media
0416 143 030
marshall@foghornrecords.net

News and Touring

Mark Cashin – New Single Just Like Me

July 13, 2020 Marshall Cullen

Mark Cashin has released the 4th in the series of tribute songs following the tragic loss of his son Coen in a car accident 4 years ago.

Mark says

"That time has come around again as we hit July and know I will be showing my love & dedication to honour my late son with his new release. What a beautiful tribute song! Just Like Me releases on July 10 & this year would be Coen's 27th birthday. A very special song for one of the most innovative drummers ... an evolution on the skins in modern times.  This years effort following on from last years “move your body” a co - write with  Coen prior to his passing. The last photo that was taken of us together in the studio showed just that .  September last year I was talked into moving houses only one block away from where we both lived ... the first day in the house the new song started to scribe it self in my head. These songs I don’t write - they just write them selves as did previous tribute songs “where are you now” & “eternal love”. So please head on over to view the digital video single on YouTube Facebook and all other media platforms this Friday 10th July 2020.

Quotes:
“Brings rock back to the fore”- Rock Candy Mag
“Incredible voice & truly epic sound”- Epic Radio
“Punchy guitar & poppy vocals” - Low Tone Media
“Sounds of a new world rock music scene”- V1 Music

Checkout the new video

Need the single? Stream it here:

Connect with Mark

News and Touring

ARIA Winners Steve Kilbey & Gareth Koch LIVE & Streaming at Lizotte’s Restaurant

July 9, 2020 Marshall Cullen

STEVE KILBEY AND GARETH KOCH PERFORM “SONGS FROM ANOTHER LIFE: (MUSIC OF ANTIQUITY)”
LIVE AT LIZOTTE’S RESTAURANT
24 JULY 2020

Get tickets HERE to book for
Steve Kilbey & Gareth Koch’s
“Songs From Another Life: Music of Antiquity Live at Lizottes”

And if you are stuck in another state or even overseas and can’t make it to the show don’t worry you can now stream it live –
One of Australia’s most loved and award-winning Live Music Venue’s, Lizotte’s Newcastle, is not only LIVE, but also STREAMING!

With the recent social gathering capacity restrictions in NSW lifted to 100 people, Lizotte’s Newcastle are re-opening their doors for LIVE, in-venue, dinner and show performances by some of Australia’s best Artists and Production shows. In addition to seeing a live show, the venue has now implemented a Streaming option for those that miss out on purchasing one of the limited available tickets, so you can sit back and watch the full show from your living room or where-ever you maybe on your TV, laptop or phone.

Steve & Gareth are joined onstage by music legends Barton Price(The Models) & Roger Mason(Icehouse)to render their unique musical creation. It is an entirely new and esoteric body of work, evoking a living connection to the past which resonates with us all.

The live performance includes pieces from both albums, reconstructed to suit the live format, and will be presented as a 1 hour set plus an encore. The chemistry of these four musicians is undeniable as they harness their diverse musical influences.

Songs from Another Life (Music of Antiquity) is the second collaborative album by Steve Kilbey and Gareth Koch. It follows their successful debut Chryse Planitia earlier this year.

These two artisans have produced a unique musical creation – an esoteric masterpiece which is difficult to define. It is an entirely new body of work, evoking a living connection to the past which resonates with us all.
In Steve’s words on the liner notes to the LP he says:
“Working with language scholars and local musicians, we have attempted to bring these ancient songs alive. They have rendered the songs in a manner that is comprehensible to the modern listener. The songs and recordings represent the thoughts and sounds of a distant antiquity. Here then is the past – and now the past is here.”

Get tickets HERE to book for
Steve Kilbey & Gareth Koch’s
“Songs From Another Life: Music of Antiquity Live at Lizottes”

Songs From Another Life is OUT NOW via FOGHORN/MGM.
Video

Connect with Steve Kilbey:

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News and Touring

Fiona Joy Hawkins’ New Single and Video

June 29, 2020 Marshall Cullen

Fiona Joy Hawkin’s Presents New Single and Video
Calling County Clare

Music for this moment… A piano journey that finds joy. Calling County Clare is the first track on Fiona Joy’s upcoming album Moving Through Worlds due out 7 July. Calling County Clare is a Celtic dance and joyful celebration featuring piano with Irish Whistle, guitars, accordion and rhythm. In the video Fiona is standing on the shores of Town Beach at Port Macquarie and calling to the shores of Ireland. There’s some really beautiful drone footage of the Irish coast throughout the video shot specifically for the clip.

Watch the Video (Premiered last week on Scenstr) for Calling County Clare here

Blue Coast owner/producer Cookie Marenco says, “Fiona’s melodic solo piano and masterful performances are the perfect music to debut the kind of clarity double DSD audio brings to the home listener,”

“One of the brightest lights in contemporary instrumental music, Fiona Joy is poised to move into stardom,” -Will Ackerman, Founder of Windham Hill Records

“Calling County Clare” is OUT NOW via FOGHORN/MGM.

Streaming “Calling County Clare”
Stream on Spotify
Stream on Bandcamp
Stream on Apple Music

Connect with Fiona Joy:

For further information, Files, CD and Interview Requests please contact:
Marshall Cullen at Foghorn Media
0416 143 030
marshall@foghornrecords.net

News and Touring

The Insufferable Paul Scott New EP Radio Station

June 19, 2020 Marshall Cullen

Paul Scott unleashes his ‘Insufferable’ Persona on the airwaves once again this time with the most friendly of Radio Tunes – titled “Radio Station”

The Insufferable Paul Scott (The Likes of You, Montana, John Kennedy’s 68 Comeback Special, The Bad Machines and on into the dim recesses of the Indie hive-mind’s faltering memory…) has plied bass and guitar for various Australian acts, playing everywhere from community halls and malls in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to the Sydney Opera House. Most recently Scott released last year’s lovingly reviewed and widely supported by community radio, indiepop album ‘Surrender to Robots’.

Radio Station is the next instalment.

Says Scott: “When I was coming up (pre-internet!) the only way you could hear alternative music was on independent and community radio stations: Joy Division, HuskerDu,The Boys Next Door, The Replacements, The Waterboys… I’d hear an amazing song on the radio and have fun hunting for it at the local record emporium. Unfortunately when it came to remembering the details of the track I’d just heard I was less reliable than Shazam: I once spent a week trying to find a Lou Reed song called ‘Velvet Underground’ only to be set straight by the record store clerk “it’s a band not a song, you idiot”.”

Radio Station – What’s it about?

It’s about 3 minutes and 8 seconds.