South African export Indie pop band, Beatenberg have just dropped their first studio album in five years.
“The Great Fire Of Beatenberg” comes after the band’s chart-topping 2018 album, “12 Views of Beatenberg” and their post-pandemic EP, “On the way to Beatenberg”.
Beatenberg, who live between London and Berlin, are made up of Cape Town trio Matthew Field (vocals and guitar), Robin Brink (drums) and Ross Dorkin (bass).
Field developed many of the singles on the 13-track album in various home studio set-ups, followed by three weeks of recording in Cape Town and Johannesburg with UK producer Tom Stafford at Milestone Studios, Sunset Recording Studios and Jazzworx.
He then flew back to London to join Dorkin for more recordings and the production and mixing process.
Commenting on the album, Field said: “In a continuing and open-ended definition of Beatenberg as some kind of ‘place’, the album name references the Great Fire of London, the climate and geopolitical anxieties of our time, the hellish feeling that can sometimes define long processes such as making an album, tracks as fire, fire of passion and fire of renewal – fynbos, perhaps.”
The new album features a broad emotional range of songs, including, sad and silly, with an exciting collaboration with SA musical genius Sun-El Musician, who co-wrote and produced the track “Branches on a Tree”.
Other songs include “Eau de Toilette”, “Gold Mine”, “Worth More” and “When I Fall Asleep”, among others.
“I hope that putting out the work we’ve cared about, and given our energy to, will be of some benefit to someone, somewhere, sometime. Or something. I’m just as motivated as ever to put form to the feelings that I’ve had since I can remember, and to make music and word arrangements that I love.
“I also remain grateful and am sporadically overcome by the way people have continued to connect with our music. I thank everyone for listening and responding in whatever way you have and continue to do,” ended Field.