Tag Archives: new album
Steve Kilbey And Gareth Koch New Album Songs From Another Life: Music Of Antiquity
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.
It is tantalising to reflect on how music of the ‘ancients’ might have sounded. Our clues lie in the iconography and artistic representations of the pre-Christian era, and within specific types of folk music which have a living tradition. This continuum provides a valuable framework for the attempt at reconstructing ancient music. Indian folk music and flamenco for example create an interesting template, since both these traditions merged and are further coloured by the Moorish invasions of Andalucia.
It is significant therefore that the earliest form of notation was created in Babylonia, probably in about 1400BC. The instructions are fragmentary, but the cuneiform tablets suggest that the music was composed using scales, harmonies and gestures not altogether unfamiliar to today’s listener.
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.”
Out Now
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For further information, and Interview requests please contact:
Marshall@foghornrecords.net
0416 143 030
Gareth Koch Releases New EP Code Blue
Following the critically acclaimed collaboration album with Steve Kilbey(The Church) and with a new album pending from the pair Gareth found time during lock down to complete and sneak out this EP with the title song very close to his heart-literally….
“How does an artwork or song come into being and take form where once nothing existed?
The answer has layers of complexity, and varies from artist to artist, but there are partial explanations. Usually there is some type of catalyst, a half-remembered whisper, idea or a musical phrase which forms a point of creative departure. Sometimes though, an actual event might spark inspiration.”
The song Code Blue is jaunty & upbeat with tongue-in-cheek lyrics, but these provide clues to an underlying seriousness:
‘code blue runnin outa time,…show a vital sign,… in emergency ICU…o honey i’d die for you….’
A ‘code blue’ is a hospital crisis situation in which the patient is in cardiopulmonary arrest, requiring a team to rush to the specific location and begin rescue efforts.
The narrative of the song draws on a sudden medical emergency in which Gareth was saved by the skill of medical staff.
Both the song Code Blue and EP are dedicated with love and gratitude to the wonderful medical professionals across the world.
The Video for the Song Premiered on Scentre below
The other tracks hold their own as well-
Come Heavy Sleep is a type of re-imagined Elizabethan ballad, while The Flame carries echos of the great Blue Oyster Cult. The surprise inclusion on this EP is the notorious rock song ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’ by Australian rock band The Angels. In this rendering Koch re-invents the song as a ballad of unimaginable sensitivity, laced with subtlety & classical guitars.
Connect with Gareth
Stream or Download The EP
Tim Walker’s New Album Bridge of Angels Out Now
Ex-Sydney singer-songwriter Tim Walker moved back to his hometown of Adelaide earlier this year and immediately began recording this new album, his first for a while.
The album was inspired by a recent trip to Europe, where Tim was struck by a culture saturated with centuries of spiritual and religious symbols, strivings and sentiments. The new album has more universal themes than his first (Fellow Traveller), which was very Sydney-oriented.
Beginning in folk, he went into a country rock act, and now is a prolific soloist, doing gigs around Adelaide. He was a regular on the Sydney live circuit and played at several NSW festivals. He found a SA recording studio in Grange this year, and immediately began laying down tracks according to a careful plan, devised over many months.
Track list with Descriptions:
- On The Bridge (a prelude): This is a crossroad, of civilisation, of history, the course of your own life, a juncture, a leap. The “bridge” refers to Rome’s Bridge of Angels of the album’s title, which is lined with 10 angels and overlooked by a castle, on the River Tiber. A short classical piece, it provides the thematic underpinning of the entire album – a beautiful, floating spark of hope and redemption for a world in flux.
- The Loving Arms (those we love): The race is on from the day you are born as time and love play off against each other, and the kindness of strangers. The real currency of life, more valuable than gold or silver, never to be taken for granted.
- Every Story Tells a Picture (the plague): With 7.8 billion people on Earth and millions more being added every year, we are running out of everything, including our humanity and our judgement.
- Mirror of Love (a reflection):A photograph can lie, but love cannot lie. It is the ultimate mirror.
- Red Velvet Chair (a friend in need): When you sit in this chair you tell the truth, and the truth is told to you. It’s the advice of a friend, the helping hand. But hey, you can have some fun with it too!
- Streets of Rome (eyes are opened): The ancient capital was no stranger to the album’s themes. Without the benefit of science, its original citizensinvented their own answers to life, preserved today with respect and awe, embedded in every stone of the city. And they had to deal with the same spiritual questions as us. Rome was therefore the accidental epicentre of the album.
- The Bolshie Swing (the dance): Time for a break. This track started off as a playful riff and expanded into a mini-orchestra, was left on the shelf for a while, then rushed into action as track 7. It was the understudy.
- Face Without a Name (stare inside): Ultimately we are just one of the crowd. It’s a big world and that crowd is made up of billions. Not often can we roar; more often at most we can squeak. Not invisible -but maybe only a “hill of beans”, as Bogart said in one of his films.
- Fly into the Sunrise (flying home): You have been away, seen many things. Now you wing your way on a long flight home, from the nighttime behind (the past) to the sunrise ahead (the future). The huge jet streams past, its passengers look out and simultaneously look in, through half-asleep eyes; the moment is sublime.
- Star (inspiration): Maybe it’s love at first sight; maybe it’s the inspiration that keeps alive a distant flame. Perhaps it’s fate.
Listen on your favourite platform:
The Mezcaltones Mexican Hillbilly Surf Music
The Mezcaltones Mexican Hillbilly Surf Music
The band’s third album finds them at the top of their game with brilliantly written and played originals along with a tasteful selection of covers lifted from their live set. Recorded and mixed in just over a week at Damien Gerard’s new expanded studios on the Central Coast, the album stands as their most cohesively accessible and sonically pleasing to date.
Only released last Friday to coincide with the launch on Sydney’s Northern Beaches to their home crowd the Album is already garnering reviews such as
“The third album from the enigmatic Mezcaltones is cranking, feelgood drinking music that crawls into your boots and drags you to the dance floor of any number of dusty roadside Mexican Saloons.” Redback Rock
“The good, the bad, the groovy, playing all things cool with a Tarantino and strong Mexican flavour.Blog
The band have also been invited to co host Ross Fear’s influential Australian Spectrum show this Tuesday March 3 (tonight).
The band will be playing over the next few weeks to promote the record, see dates below.
And now to the band – Just what is it about the Mezcaltones-
Four guys dressed as cowboys and two women dressed like Spanish Mexican Senoritas that you might find in a Quentin Tarantino movie – two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer a Crazy front man and a beautiful dancer/percussionist. Whilst their original songs have an alt country flavour with rich Cowboy guitar sounds reminiscent of another century the guitar tones also reach into the realms of 60’s surf instrumentals.
See them live at
Album – Out Now – Foghorn/MGM
CD on sale at Shows
Click below for DSP’s
Connect with The Mezcaltones:
For further information please contact:
Marshall Cullen at Foghorn Media
0416 143 030
marshall@foghornrecords.net
Steve Kilbey and Gareth Koch New Album Chryse Planitia
New Reviews
What unites the musical spheres of an Australian rock icon
and a Viennese-trained classical musician?
The answer lies in a shared aesthetic and approach to their craft. There is a wistful and haunting lilt to the Kilbey/Koch songs, as they float seamlessly through a narrative of fallen crowns, fatal hours, and enchanted gardens. To compliment the poignant lyrics is a delicious instrumentation, weaving and wafting, ghostly and waif-like, alternately brimming with rhythmic drive, present yet somehow elusive.
Hot on the heels of two critically acclaimed singles, the debut album Chryse Planitiapulses with a strong and immediately recognisable musical identity. Kilbey and Koch have forged an entirely new sound characterised by a fluid and elegant movement across genres. Their partnership draws inspiration from medieval music to post-modern psychedelia, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, with every imaginable influence in between.
Steve Kilbey, also known as the frontman of veteran rock band The Church, has generated a lifetime of beautifully crafted songs. His subtly esoteric lyrics create an aura of mystery, posing questions and teasing the listener with riddle-like answers. Kilbey’s words evoke a succession of images, half-remembered whisperings at the edge of our consciousness. He is a poet-master of unsaid things whose writing arouses the dreamer within us.
Gareth Koch is a European-born classical guitarist and composer who has recorded most of the major repertoire. His compositional style reflects a lifelong engagement with classical, folk and flamenco music. Although not easy to define, Koch’s music is often characterised by medieval gestures, influenced by the unrequited longing style of the French Trouveres (singer-poets) of the 12thcentury.
Expertly tracked by Andrew Beck and mixed by Russell Pilling of Damien Gerard Studios and superbly mastered by Grammy Awardwinning King Willy Sound, Chryse Planitiais a feast for the ears.
Out Now
Connect with Steve Kilbey:
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For further information, and Interview requests please contact:
Marshall@foghornrecords.net
0416 143 030
10cc Star Graham Gouldman Released First Solo Album in Eight Years UPDATE
10cc Star Graham Gouldman Released First Solo Album in Eight Years plus Tour In Australia and New Zealand.
On February 21 2020, 10cc’s Graham Gouldman released ‘Modesty Forbids’ here in Australia to coincide with the 10cc Australia / New Zealand Tour.
UPDATE – with the release of the album now, a new review by Michael Smith:
http://soundslikecafe.com/graham-gouldman-album-modesty-forbids-new-review/
Released on British independent record label Lojinx, Modesty Forbids is the fifth solo album of Graham’s career, and his first since 2012’s ‘Love And Work’.
Listen now on your preferred service
Featuring eleven tracks, the album’s release will coincide with 10cc’s 14-date Australia and New Zealand tour, ahead of the rest-of-world release in March 2020.
With Graham’s 10cc tours enjoying ever-increasing success around the world in recent years, in 2018 he was invited by former Beatles’ drummer Ringo Starr to join his All Starr Band for tours of Europe and the USA, during which the band played three 10cc songs, elevating Graham’s profile yet further.
That relationship continues, with Ringo making a very special guest appearance on Modesty Forbids, playing drums on a song called ‘Standing Next To Me’.
Graham said, “Playing with Ringo Starr and The All Starr Band was absolutely brilliant, and having Ringo play drums on one of my new album’s songs was the icing on the cake. In it, I write about how I came to be asked to join Ringo’s band and about my experience of being on the road with him, alongside Steve Lukather, Colin Hay, Gregg Rolie, Warren Ham and Gregg Bissonette, who also plays drums on three of the album’s tracks.”
Ringo Starr added, “It was such a thrill for me to have Graham in my All Starr Band in 2018, with his great songs and great bass playing and his very British personality! And look what happens – he goes home and writes a great song and then asks me to play drums on it! It was my honour because the track is fab and I want to congratulate him on such a good album too.”
Co-produced by Graham Gouldman and Graeme Pleeth, all of the songs on Modesty Forbids were recorded at The Pleeth Station Studios, except for ‘Waited All My Life For You’, which was recorded at Astral Drive London. Additional recording also took place at London’s Hoxa HQ to complete the track ‘That’s Love Right There’. The album was then mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. The album’s cover artwork was design by StormStudios, with illustrations by Dan Abbott.
The album’s eclectic mix of song styles includes swing (something Graham’s never tried before), the blues and gospel is something he hopes everybody enjoys as much as he did making the album.
Graham said, “I can’t begin to tell you what a pleasure it was making Modesty Forbids and to be able to work with so many fine musicians. When listening back to the album I realise that there are two recurring themes. One is about climate change awareness and the other is a call for ‘peace and love’. These two subjects may be clichés, but I don’t care – as long as we take action on the first and practice the second we’ll all be ok.”
10CC Australia New Zealand Tour Dates 2020
Connect with Graham:
For further information, Guest-Listing and Interview requests please contact:
Marshall@foghornrecords.net
0416 143 030
Margaret Anne and The Rock It Man Lay Their Souls Bare
Margaret Anne and The Rock It Man’s debut album is called Soul Laid Bare. Lyrically it’s an intensely personal exploration of emotional turmoil after a marriage breakup, while musically it’s an exciting blend of Americana, country, roots, blues, funk and rock.
The title track is due for release on October 25. It was written while singer Margaret Anne was making the agonizing decision to leave a 20 year marriage, break up a family and family home. The song conveys a search for clarity and expresses the fear and recklessness in making such a massive and life changing decision for all involved.
Another album highlight is a song Margaret Anne wrote with renowned Australian singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson. Entitled Don’t Look Back, the track is an exploration of marriage in the aftermath of her breakdown. “Just 2 months after leaving my husband,” says Margaret Anne, “Don’t look Back was written on a sheep station in Nundle (outside Tamworth). It has undertones of loss, sadness and questioning and the decision to move on from the wreckage and not look back.”
Growing up in a seaside town on the south coast of NSW, she was blessed to belong to a musical family so classical piano, guitar and song became a big part of her life.
Margaret Anne says she was heavily influenced by her surfing brothers as she grew up. “We would pool our pennies to buy the latest records. My favourites, and certainly most early influences were Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, The Stones, Carol King, James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, Hair! Anything Woodstock!”
Adventurous and a passionate singer songwriter, Margaret Anne continually touches her listeners with her inclusive heartfelt singing, dynamic stage presence and empowering songs. She currently manages and performs in the successful band Firefly.
Soul Laid Bare is a collaboration with Doug Weaver, a talented multi instrumentalist, producer and screenwrite. He has produced and written music for over 200 episodes of the American TV show The MythBusters and also many local programs including Border Security and Beach Cops.
Margaret Anne has always been an adventurer, having previously travelled the world for 11 years and visiting 56 countries. This time her attention is turned inwards and the result is an emotive album full of vulnerabilities and strength.
Soul Laid Bare (the single) is out on October 25.
The album of the same name is due in March 2020.
Download or stream from October 25:
Watch Soul Laid Bare here:
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Apsara – Tandem Venit Amor (Official)
Rebecca Daniel and Fiona Joy Hawkins Explore ‘The Lightness Of Dark’
REBECCA DANIEL AND FIONA JOY HAWKINS JOIN FORCES TO CREATE THE LIGHTNESS OF DARK – A POWERFUL MUSICAL EXPLORATION OF LOSS, MOURNING AND FINDING BEAUTY AMIDST LIFE’S SADNESS
Superb Classical Crossover Music, featuring award winning artists Rebecca Daniel (Violin/Voice/Piano) and Fiona Joy Hawkins (Piano/Voice) Will Be Supporting Their Cathartic and Healing New Album With A USA Fall Tour 2019.
Leonard Cohen once said, “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
Australian instrumentalists Rebecca Daniel and Fiona Joy Hawkins place this insight on the back cover of The Lightness of Dark to illuminate their creative and spiritual vision behind the project –their first dual album after many years of live and studio collaborations. The two explore the many facets of life and loss, the search for something positive in the crippling shadows and the potential beauty that can emerge from mourning and sadness.
The Lightness of Dark weaves its lush, cathartic narrative via music with varying instrumentation depending on the emotions the two are expressing. The opening track “Heavenly Voices” blends string quartet (featuring The Kanimbla Quartet)with organ, piano and vocals. Other tracks feature solo piano (“Ghosts, Insanity, Angels”), piano/violin duet (“Elegy”), piano with quartet pads (“Lake of Contemplation”), string quartet only (“Interwoven Threads of Chance”), string quartet featuring piano (“Empty Moments”) and other combinations uniquely fitted for the compositions they imbue.
“We believe our album will connect with everyone because we all experience loss in varying forms,” Fiona says. “It can be the loss of youth, a loved one, a pet, your health…Life changing events where we are left to mourn because of loss. People only face their own issues when you lead them to a safe place to do this.”
Rebecca and Fiona have enjoyed a long history of collaborations and are looking forward to working with renowned Australian Producer Llew Kiek. They have performed over 50 concerts together including at the Sydney Opera House for the 2012 MusicOz Awards, New Orleans for 2014 ZMR Awardsand 2017 Sydney Women’s International Jazz Festival-and Rebecca has appeared on nearly every one of Fiona’s solo albums. The two have played together as part of Fiona’s Blue Dream Ensemble, and Rebecca produced the group’s album Live at the Q.
Rebecca Daniel studied violin and chamber music with Emanuel Hurwitz and the Amadeus String Quartet at The Royal Academy of Music. She worked with Trevor Pinnock and Simon Standage, and The Australian Chamber Orchestra, and was Orchestra Leader for Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, The Sound of Music and Beauty and the Beast. She has recorded and performed with, John Denver, Bread, James Galway and the Chieftains, Will Ackerman, Shirley Bassey, Barbra Streisand, Men at Work and INXS.
Rebecca cites John Lennon, Amadeus String Quartet and Samuel Barber as amongst her earliest musical influences. She also told us that a collection of 78’s from the 1930’s was her first music purchase. Her natural penchant for music was evident when she was very young. “I started singing as a baby, was given a violin at 4,” she says. “It was just expected of me to be a musician. But I only started writing a few years ago.”
Fiona Joy Hawkins, a Conservatorium-trained pianist, renowned for her romantic, melodic songs and lush arrangements, is a prolific composer who 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’s song “Grace’ is on a 2014 Grammy Winning album, and in 2016 she won two Independent Music Awards at the Lincoln Centre in New York. She has several Best Piano Album ZMR Awards and has worked with Producer Will Ackerman (Founder Windham Hill Records and Cookie Marenco (Blue Coast Records) for hi-resolution audiophile recordings.
Stream or Download:
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