Walkabouts - Travels in the Dustland

Walkabouts Travels in the Dustland Label Glitterhouse Records Erstveröffentlichung 22.10.2011 Format CD Lieferzeit 1 – 3 Werktage Preis 12,75 € (inkl. MwSt. zzgl. Versand)

In über dreißig Jahren Bandgeschichte haben die Walkabouts aus Seattle uns als Label geprägt, aber auch darüber hinaus begeistert. Sei es mit dem Alt. Country Meisterwerk „Satisfied Mind“, dem elegischen „Trail of Stars“ oder dem wütenden „Acetylene“, alles was Chris Eckman, Carla Torgerson und Co angefasst haben, war und ist- große Klasse.Wer hätte das noch für möglich gehalten? Sechs Jahre nach Acetylene, dem vermeintlichen Schlussakkord, die Rückkehr der Walkabouts aus dem selbstgewählten Exil, eine Rückmeldung der zum Sextett angewachsenen Institution aus Seattle. Er würde nur ein neues Walkabouts Album angehen, wenn Inspiration und Songmaterial stimmen, wenn alle mitziehen, wenn man das gewisse Etwas spüren würde. Antwortete Mastermind Chris Eckman auf Fragen von Freunden und Fans nach einem neuen Album.Irgendwann war es dann so weit, der Gedanke war gewachsen, der Wille war da und der in Ljubljana beheimatete Eckman kehrte zurück nach Seattle, um abzuchecken, wie heiß seine Mitstreiter auf ein neues Album waren. Schon bei den ersten Sessions sprang der Funke über, jede Menge Kreativität entfaltete sich, man fühlte sich wohl und Carla sang wie ein Engel. Nach intensive Sessions ist mit Travels In Dustland ein weiterer Monolith in der Geschichte der Walkabouts fertig. Das Album ist insgesamt ruhiger und getragener, um nicht zu sagen epischer als die recht ruppige Vorgänger-CD. Ein gewisses Gewicht liegt auf fließenden Grooves. Die Songs bersten aber auch vor liebevoll platzierten Details, Verweisen und unaufdringlichen Klangexperimenten. Außer Eckman und Torgerson bestehen die Walkabouts aus alten Bekannten wie Bassist Michael Wells, Keyboarder Glenn Slater und Schlagzeugerin Terri Moeller. Zum Sextett wird die Band durch Paul Austin (ex-Willard Grant Conspiracy, Transmissionary Six) an Gitarre und Arrangementideen.Travels In Dustland ist kein Konzeptalbum, denn die Geschichten, die hier erzählt werden verbindet nichts als der gemeinsame Schauplatz Dustland. „Das ist ein symbolischer Ort, der aber viele Charakteristika von realen Orten hat“, klärt uns Eckman auf. „Er befindet sich irgendwo im Mittleren Westen, wo die Menschen schon immer ein hartes Leben hatten, die Umstände es ihnen aber heute nicht wirklich leichter machen.”So klingt das Album gleichermaßen vertraut und neu. Es fühlt sich eindeutig nach Walkabouts an, Chris Eckman’s Songwriting, Band-Sound, die Stimmen, der Vibe – das alles kennt der Fan und nimmt es mit Begeisterung hin. Ein weiteres spannendes Kapitel in einer aufregenden Bandgeschichte. Die CD kommt im Digipak mit eingeklebtem 28 Seiten Booklet. Das limitierte Doppelvinyl kommt auf 180 Gramm im Klappcover, mit Einlieger und bedruckten Innenhüllen! (rh)

Herstellerinformationen
Glitterhouse Records GmbH
Schlachthofstr. 36a
21079 Hamburg
Deutschland

www.glitterhouse.com

An institution returns! A new band is here! For those who have started listening to rockmusic about five years ago The Walkabouts might be considered superb newcomers who cover a big part of the American rock music tradition.
For those whose memories reach further back, The Walkabouts are known as a band that has singlehandedly started the alternative Folkrock revival in the Eighties and since then impressed with every album release, while never reacting to the current trends. Since the beginning the main factors have been Chris Eckman’s songwriting and the voices of Eckman and vocalist Carla Torgerson. The songs own an incendiary melancholy that is forward facing, even when it is buried deep in tradition.
The last album „Acytelene“ dates back almost six years and saw the band embarking into harder rocking territories. Silence followed and many fans asked themselves, if „Acetylene“ would be the band‘s final chord? Now we know that it was just a prolonged break. The new album „Travels In The Dustland“ is the continuation as well as a restart of their unique band history. Even before „Acetylene“ was released the band agreed to only record a new album if there was a story to tell, thus stripping off the bondage to release one album per year, even if there is nothing to say. There was no need to keep The Walkabouts running the release rat-race, since all members by now had families and were involved in various jobs and projects. Like Chris Eckmann for example, who was working with his bands Dirtmusic and Long amongst others.
Before the work on the new album started the whole band went through a long process of self-discovery, until the fog lifted and the band saw the silhouettes of the album like a mountain range that needed to be vanquished together. They succeeded and their new album “Travels In The Dustland” is yet another monolith in their discography. One does not need to be well-versed in the band’s history to be impressed by the sound and the songs that carry the listener away into their own imagination. And those who are familiar with the Walkabouts will feel right at home when they hear the first words emanating from Carla Torgerson’s golden throat.
“Travels In The Dustland” is quieter, more solemn and epic that it’s predecessor release. There is a floating groove, but also lovely miniatures and unobtrusive soundexperiments. Apart from Eckman and Torgerson the band still consists of Michael Wells (Bass), Glenn Slater (Keyboards) and Terri Moeller (Drums). New member is Paul Austin on guitar, who was integral part in Willard Grant Conspiracy and now plays in Transmissionary Six with spouse Terri Moeller. “It was important for us not to repeat ourselves”, tells Chris Eckman. “We needed fresh inspiration and an undisguised view towards ourselves. I played different guitars and in the end I played less guitar, simply because there was a second guitar player. Paul contributed a lot of ideas and often asked, whether we could imagine the song in another arrangement. That’s why I wanted him involved. I did not want to enter the studio to record business as usual. It is important to get into uncomfortable situations once in a while, in order to be forced to try new ideas”.
Thus “Travels In The Dustland” sounds equally familiar and new. The songs have the Walkabouts feeling, but there are a lot of unusual sounds lurking beyond the surface. Eckman, who is living in Slovenia for a few years now, is adding some of that morbid eastern European charm to the recordings while the others contribute their own experiences. Eckman is the architect of the new building, but the members work on and decorate the interior. The Walkabouts know how to express desire without being sentimental. Not only with their lyrics, but also with their melodies, grooves, arrangements and sounds, even with the sequence of their songs they prove their ability to tell a story. An aspect, that is of bigger significance than on any of their previous albums. The Walkabouts were – as their band name says – always in motion. But where is “Dustland”, the destination of their travel? “It is somewhere in the Midwest, where tot his day people are living a hard life. The Midwest has not changed during the last 200 years. But I did not want Dustland to be a certain spot on the map, but rather choose to do it like William Faulkner, who came up with fictional Yoknapatawpha County somewhere in Mississippi as home for his stories.”
„Travels In The Dustland“ is no concept album, because the stories have nothing in common but the location. Eckman rather calls it a song cycle that opens up a lot of new possibilities for the band. And the travel continues. The Walkabouts already are forging out plans for the future. A band that even after more than a dozen albums will continue to walk off the trodden path in order to explore new terrain.

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