Iconic Irish artist PERRY BLAKE presents ‘Concertina’
single ahead of landmark album ‘Death of a Society Girl’
Ahead of releasing his new album ‘Death of a Society Girl’, Irish singer-songwriter Perry Blake presents the light-filled cinematic single ‘Concertina’, following the epic title track ‘Death of a Society Girl’ featuring Paul McGann, best known for his roles in BBC’s ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Withnail & I’, ‘Empire of the Sun’, ‘Alien 3’ and ‘Queen of the Damned’.
Out on June 21 via Moochin’ About Records, this album marks 26 years for Blake as a recording artist. It’s also his first music in five years, following the critically acclaimed ‘Songs of Praise’ (5 Stars MOJO). Very much of the here and now, this album also offers traces of Perry’s previous heady work – not dissimilar to his French Top-40 eponymous debut album – finding Perry at the height of his powers.
The ‘Death of a Society Girl’ album was co-written and co-produced with long-term collaborator Graham Murphy (Clannad, Sharon Shannon, Marie Brennan). These nine compositions feature Blake’s hallmark surrealist lyrics and original artwork by Syrian-born artist Helen Abbas.
Known for his delicate, downtempo and beautifully melancholic output and uniquely soothing timbre, he is well known as a collaborator of Françoise Hardy, who sang on ‘War in France’ (from his album ‘Still Life’). He also contributed lyrics for her platinum-selling album ‘Tant de belles choses’, having co-written, mixed and produced two songs (‘Moments’ and ‘So Many Things’) on this record, together with Marco Sabiuhe. Blake would later release his own version of the latter track.
Hailing from Sligo county, Perry Blake has been dubbed one of music’s great untapped resources. Polydor UK released his debut album ‘Perry Blake’ in 1998 (with three singles chosen as ‘Singles of the Week’ on Jo Wiley BBC Radio 1), after which he moved to France. He achieved cult status there and across Europe, releasing a string of critically-acclaimed studio albums, a live album recorded at Cirque Royal Brussels with a full orchestra, as well as the soundtracks for ‘Presque Rien’ and ‘Trois Petites Filles’.
Over the years, his musical endeavours has led him to collaborate with numerous musical luminaries, including Toby Pitman (Paul McCartney, George Michael, David Arnold, Clint Mansell, Shirley Bassey),Steve Jansen (Japan, Rain Tree Crow), Glenn Garrett (Dead Can Dance, Brendan Perry), Neil Conti (David Bowie, Prefab Sprout), Rik Carter (The Mission, All About Eve), Marco Sabiu (Ennio Morricone, Tanita Tikaram, Luciano Pavarotti), Dickon Hinchliffe (Tindersticks), and world-renowned French electronic artist Émilie Simon.
Perry Blake’s melancholic, melodic soundscapes have featured in many European TV series and cinematic works. Between 2006 and 2011, these include ‘Tiger Lily’and ‘Clara Sheller’ (France’s version of ‘Sex in the City’), plus hit Italian movie ‘L’uomo cheama’ starring Monica Belluci. He has also appeared regularly on French TV and toured Europe with Carla Bruni, as well as with the French National Jazz Orchestra.
Perry Blake has published the children’s book ‘Gatos em Lissadell’, as part of a collection by 12 authors, including former U.S president Jimmy Carter, Will Smith and Julie Andrews. He also has a separate collaborative music project with Glenn Garrett and Graham Murphy, called Electro Sensitive Behaviour.
‘Concertina’ is out now via Bandcamp. On June 21, ‘Death of a Society Girl’ will be released on CD and digitally, including on Apple Music, Spotify andBandcamp, where it is available for pre-order, including three bonus remixes by UK electronic artists KosmetiQ and Inertia.
ALBUM CREDITS
All songs written by Perry Blake & Graham Murphy
Recorded at Orchardleigh, North West Ireland & the Production Suite Dublin
Engineered and mixed by Perry Blake & Graham Murphy at the Production Suite Dublin
Mastered by Steve Hall at Future Disc America
Produced by Perry Blake & Graham Murphy
Perry Blake – Vocals, Backing Vocals, Keyboards
Graham Murphy – Bass, Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Additional Drum Programming, String Arrangements.
Artwork by Helen Abbas
Album cover design by Jason Lee Lazell
Released by Moochin’ About @2024
Distributed via PIAS @2024
Publicity by Shameless Promotion PR
Artist photos by Sid Rainey
TRACK LIST
1. Requiem
2. One of These Days
3. Nobody’s Child
4. Song of The Wind
5. Let’s Fall In Love
6. Concertina
7. Rules of Love
8. Death of a Society Girl
9. Hummingbirds
DISCOGRAPHY
Perry Blake (Polydor 1998)
Still Life (Naive 1999)
Presque Rien Ep (Naive 2000)
Broken Statues – Live album (Naive 2001)
California (Naive 2002)
Songs for Someone (Naive 2004)
The Crying Room (Warners/Blu Orchard 2006)
Songs of Praise (Moochin’about/PIAS 2019)
Death of a Society Girl (Moochin’about/PIAS 2024)
FOR SHARING
‘Death of a Society Girl’ album order https://moochinaboutltd.bandcamp.com/album/death-of-a-society-girl-2
‘Concertina’ https://moochinaboutltd.bandcamp.com/track/concertina-2
‘Death of a Society Girl’ ft. Paul McGann https://youtu.be/N75xPsC34Tk
‘Let’s Fall In Love’ https://youtu.be/rqdsMQDzn6M
‘The Sky From Here’ live performance https://youtu.be/tmc_ulUn2aA
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/089hYKSP0TVHiHHXtiDi1E
Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/artist/perry-blake/41417526
COLLABORATIONS WITH FRANCOISE HARDY
‘War In France’ feat. Françoise Hardy https://youtu.be/KlNymaVB-3Y
Françoise Hardy ‘Moments’ https://youtu.be/7BSDDHo3YTs
Françoise Hardy ‘So Many Things’ https://youtu.be/ljbrcZAITbQ
Blake Perry ‘So Many Things’ https://youtu.be/BUJ8jgZcVL4
“One of music’s great untapped resources and still on top of his game” ~ Music OMH
“The Last of The Great Songwriters” ~ Radio Nova
”Blake sounds like a cross between Bowie and Michael Nyman – only better” ~ Uncut
“Blake’s glimpses of people living a state of mind is one of those great escapes, it’s very hard to get away from. His gift here is to take a subdued, grown-up collection of songs but make them sound like they deserve daytime radio” ~ RTE.ie
‘”A resilient rebirth’’ ~ The Observer
“We can luxuriate in Perry Blake’s generous, comforting voice – spotting traces of Nick Drake, trip hop and Gary Numan” ~ Hot Press
“A rich evolving sound-scape that cocoons Blake’s almost surrealist lyrics. The limits of the Downtempo rulebook are broadly stretched with a weaving instrumentation that dips and wanders” ~ The Goo Review
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