‘From Lost To The River’ by Comrade Hat | New Album, ‘Old Gods, Vol. 2’
Exclusive video premiere of ‘From Lost To The River’ by Comrade Hat, the first single from the forthcoming album, ‘Old Gods, Vol. 2’, out later in 2022.
Staple of the Irish North-West jazz scene, Neil Burns, AKA Comrade Hat – accompanied by Donegal’s Inishowen Gospel Choir – is set to release his widescreen, pocket symphony of a new single, ‘From Lost To The River’, on March 2nd. It is the first track taken from the eagerly anticipated ‘Old Gods, Vol. 2’ – out later this year – following up on the acclaimed, Northern Ireland Music Prize long-listed album ‘Old Gods, Vol. 1’ from last year.
Undoubtedly the most ambitious track from the ‘Old Gods’ project thus far, it is a richly-layered slow building epic. Setting out with a tight, familiar, 70s-recalling in-the-pocket groove that channels the likes of Robert Wyatt, it unfurls into a kaleidoscopic pocket-symphony, recalling Brian Wilson, and ‘Dark Side’-era Floyd in the best way, featuring Inishowen Gospel Choir amongst its substantial cast of collaborators.
An evocative, imagery-heavy meditation on language and meaning, written some years ago using a collage of garbled translations from Spanish as inspiration – ‘From Lost To The River’ feels oddly prophetic to Burns, who has been in a long distance relationship and spending time in Mexico of late, finding himself between worlds, sometimes lost in translation. It also serves as a primer to ‘Old Gods, Vol. 2’, which expands the widescreen tendencies of its predecessor into a cinematic, surrealist riot of colour. He muses: “I think ‘Vol. 2’ is where the wheels come off. ‘Vol. 1’ has an air of nostalgia. It’s a bit insulated, yearning for an imagined past, whereas, I think ‘Vol. 2’ enters headlong into the chaos of the modern world. ‘The Old Gods’ are still there, but in neon. ‘From Lost to the River’ sets the stage. ‘Old Gods’ started as a very “in-the-box”, homespun lockdown project, but for this track I felt it needed a fuller sound. I knew instantly where to go.”
Burns has been joint musical director of the Inishowen Gospel Choir for several years, so it was a natural call to make to invite them to contribute backing vocals, remotely. “For reasons that hardly need to be stated, we weren’t able to sing together for over a year so it was a nice way to bring everyone together, virtually. Their vocals bring so much depth to the song – an air of conviction in an uncertain, shifting landscape”.
In this spirit, he also enlisted the IGC’s resident percussionist Gary Raymond, and polymath/synth wizard Richard Duckworth (Analog On) to contribute (on bass harmonica), alongside regular collaborators Rohan Armstrong, bass, Siobhan Shiels (Great White Lies), vocals, and Andrew McCoubrey, drums and tech support.
It is accompanied by a beautiful video by Thee Hyperstation (Mark McKeown), renewing a collaboration from ‘Old Gods, Vol. 1’, which leans poetically into the surrealism of the song.
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