Prospect of Skelmersdale

Description

ERLAND COOPER (Erland & The Carnival), SIMON TONG (former member of The Verve) and HANNAH PEEL return with a new masterpiece of classy, orchestral English pop. After composing their first record, Orkney: Symphony Of The Magnetic North, based on stories linked to the Orkney archipelago, Simon Tong, Erland Cooper and Hannah Peel chose to draw inspiration from the “new town” of Skelmersdale, located in Lancashire, for their second album. Founded in 1960, after the civil war, the town faced the reality of Thatcher’s government: falling property prices and rising unemployment. Surprisingly, it was brought out of its torpor in the 1980s by disciples of transcendental meditation, for whom it became the official home. Skelmersdale welcomed entire families of hippies from all over the country, including Tong’s family. Prospect of Skelmersdale is a musical collection of memories of a town unlike any other. Throughout the album, the voices of Cooper and Peel intertwine and blend together, telling the story of the town and its inhabitants. The group gathered archival elements linked to Skelmersdale: old newspaper articles, memoirs, road signs, graffiti and urban legends; transcribing it all into orchestral melodies that seem to freeze time. THE MAGNETIC NORTH proves to be an exceptional group whose sublime songs are as evocative and moving as a travel journal or a Ken Loach film. "Choral, strings and brass play tenderness like storms. Guitar, electronic effects, music boxes cloak the melodic refinement in a halo of mystery." Le Monde "Their melancholic songs love wind instruments and gather the storm." Les Inrocks "Of pale and enveloping beauty." Magic