BIOGRAPHY
One of the UK's most refreshing new talents, Fanfarlo, are poised to release their debut-album, RESERVOIR here in the U.S. on October 13, 2009 on Canvasback Music /Atlantic Records. It is with good reason that the band's star has been on the rise since RESERVOIR became available on their website and at shows earlier this year: Known for their literary smarts and bookish charm, the UK five-piece create a heart-wrenchingly beautiful world on this brilliant release. The band will be bringing tracks from RESERVOIR here to the U.S. for a string of tour dates this September. (See below for listing of dates).
Produced by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol) at his home studio in Bridgeport, CT, RESERVOIR employs an array of instruments to create each lushly arranged track, including saws, clarinets, cellos, mandolins, ukuleles and melodicas. Named for French poet Charles Baudelaire's fictional dancer in their name, Simon Balthazar (lead vocals, guitar, clarinet), Cathy Lucas (violin, mandolin, keyboard, vocals), Justin Finch (bass), Amos Memon (drums) and Leon Beckenham (trumpet, keyboard) take us on a journey filled with misfits, savants and dreamers, where each sentiment is accentuated by the keening of a saw or the crying of a cello. Upon the initial release of the album and performing a much talked about set at 2009's SXSW, the blogosphere was instantly set ablaze. Fans were also quickly won over at tastemaker radio stations such as NPR, whose Bob Boilen has named RESERVOIR his #1 of the year thus far and hailed, "My adoration for this band grows with every repeat. The melodies are full of emotion and the way the songs hang together is delicate and powerful." KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic," have booked Fanfarlo on the esteemed show September 17th in Los Angeles while WXPN's World Café will have the band live on their show September 23rd in Philadelphia.
First track, "I'm A Pilot" looks to Howard Hughes' slow demise as inspiration, with equal parts sad lunacy and persistent holding on, Simon Balthazar broods, "If I stay in this room; They'll remember me for my youth; If I give it all up…" Whether it's the choice of isolation we purposefully devise or the inevitable end to it all, as in track, "The Walls Are Coming Down," Fanfarlo give us no choice but to succumb the ebbs and flows, reflections and letting go that are conveyed in each metaphor that make this album so instrumentally and intellectually rich. Though a sense of melancholy of permeates RESERVOIR, Simon's heartfelt voice and each band member's uncompromised musicianship invites us to soar above it all and simply let go.
Some more recent praise for the band:
"Their upbeat attitude totally infused their music, and then the crowd. It came through in trumpet, melodicas, keyboards, drums, melodic bass and passionate dreamy stories sung by Simon Balthazar."-- NPR's "All Songs Considered"
"This adorable chamber-pop ensemble captured our hearts at SXSW, and its swoon-inducing debut Reservoir keeps the magic alive. It's a sleeper candidate for indie album of the year, with orchestral melodies that curl up beside you like a bookstore cat, then soar and arc onto the horizon like a rainbow. - Paste Magazine, August '09
