Credits
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Bruno Adams
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vocals, electric + slide guitars, bass
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Phil Shoenfelt
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vocals, electric + acoustic guitars, bass
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Chris Hughes
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drums, percussion, loops + samples
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Tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 written by Phil Shoenfelt, published by Warner-Chappell
Tracks 2, 4, 6, 9 written by Bruno Adams, published by MDF Musikverlag GmbH (D)
Recorded May 2000 in The Church Studios / Covington, Kentucky (USA)
Produced by May + Chambers and Fatal Shore
Mixed by May + Chambers
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Press Release
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FREEFALL - The new CD by Fatal Shore
Fatal Shore is a Berlin-based band comprising two Australians, one
Englishman and a German. Formed in 1996 by Phil Shoenfelt and Bruno
Adams, the group’s first engagement was a hectic tour of war-ravaged
Bosnia- Herzegovina during which they came under fire from Serbian
snipers. Soon after this dangerous beginning Chris Hughes joined the
band on drums, and the line-up was completed with the arrival of bass
player YoYo Röhm in 2001.
The recording of the first Fatal Shore CD was similarly fraught with
danger. The band travelled to the studio in Lucanec, Slovakia, by
train, at the height of the Moravian floods, and spent the first day of
recording time stranded on a rain-swept train station surrounded by
flooded fields and impassable roads. On another railway trip across the
"Wild East", the band was held hostage in a compartment by a gang of
drunken Slovakian and Ukranian migrant workers returning home for the
weekend. The guys wanted some music to accompany their drinking, and
seeing as one of them was waving a gun in the air Fatal Shore didn’t
argue.
The history of Fatal Shore is filled with bizarre events and impossible
coincidences. One of the strangest was the invitation, in April 2000,
to fly to a studio in Cincinatti USA to record the follow-up Fatal
Shore CD. The invitation came from American record producer Dan May,
who had heard the group’s first CD by chance, and within days Fatal
Shore were flying out of Berlin on their way to Cincinatti.
The bizarre events continued after they arrived at The Church, a
converted nineteenth century church in Covington, Kentucky, where May
has his studio. The studio was full of eerie vibrations, and the
presence of May’s collection of guns, automatic weapons and war
memorabilia added to the already tense and edgy atmosphere. After
several arguments and breakdowns in communication, the recording was
finally completed two hours before the group’s flight left for Berlin.
The production team in Cincinatti spent the next eighteen months mixing
and re-mixing the CD, until the dark, threatening tone of the new songs
was given its fullest expression. Some of the edginess of the recording
sessions has definitely been transmitted onto the new Fatal Shore CD,
FREE FALL.
The members of Fatal Shore have played and collaborated with many noted
musicians, including Mick Harvey, Ben Becker, Nina Hagen, Hugo Race,
Rowland S. Howard, Thomas Wydler and Kristof Hahn. Their own music has
a wide range of influences from the Delta Blues of Robert Johnson,
through songwriters such as Jacques Brel and Townes Van Zandt, to the
electronic soundscapes of Einstürzende Neubauten and Can.
FREE FALL was released in December 2003 by Moloko + and will be
accompanied by live concerts by Fatal Shore in Germany and Czech
Republic.
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Reviews
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Long-awaited
second album from Berlin and Prague-based Aussie/English trio. Back in
1997 The Fatal Shore released their fine debut album, which deserved
much greater attention than it received. This new record has been a
long time coming, but it's worth the wait. Bruno Adams, Phil Shöenfelt
and Chris Hughes operate somewhere in the Lee Hazlewood / Nick Cave
mould, but with an eastern European twist: low-slung, gravelly vocals,
an atmospheric blend of acoustic and electric guitars backed by
inventive percussion. 100° In The Shade pounds along with a Paint It
Black-style swagger, The Fields Of Summer could soundtrack a road movie
while the sparse Closing Time stacks the chairs on the tables and
collects up the empties. For the cover artwork, they made up a bunch of
metal signs with the title stamped on them, took them into the woods
outside Berlin and blasted them full of holes. A direct hit.
MOJO, Max Décharné (4 stars)
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