“Incredible songwriting combined with a naturally enchanting soundscape, driven by strings and simple yet refined compositions.” – Music for the Misfits
FOR RELEASE FEBRUARY 15
AMSTERDAM (January 28, 2022) – King Forward Records and Frank Bond announce the release of the Francis Alban Blake single “Storm Behind a Window” in the US on February 15. Through gentle strumming and fragile interludes, the single binds melancholy to nature’s healing qualities. It’s off the album, Passages, due out April 15.
A reflection of tragedy, there’s a brokenness to the song, like fragments of stained glass shattering into a prism of sound. To quote Francis Alban Blake, “When you feel broken, why wouldn’t you also sound broken?
It’s true a storm once spoke to me of sudden death and tragedy
but like so many tales it couldn’t steal my sleep, no
Why would something bad happen to you or me, oh?
–
Tell me where did you hide your love my love
when death came to search our home?
And where did you hide our well-laid plans when it came for you alone?
Frank Bond says, “This song is quite literal, but the attempts of Francis to come to terms with the loss are quite symbolic and poetic in their search to get something as difficult as this put into words. The song title refers to the fact that we generally see tragedies as something distant that happens to others but not to us.”
After the disappearance of the fictional character, Frans de Blaak in 2018, Frank Bond (Alasca) was permitted by Blake’s family to finish the album he had been working on (published under his pseudonym Francis Alban Blake). The album is accompanied by a ritual of dances, spices, ringing of bells, and the drinking of tea and wine (contained in a ritual chest) with which Francis Alban Blake can be summoned. Of course, the music can be enjoyed without the rituals, but the idea is that all of the elements together form a passage to a different experience of music and a passage into the “realm” of Francis Alban Blake.
A quirky exquisiteness infuses the songs into a distinctly Francis Blake sound. Each element is created to return Blake to where he belongs. There’s the capturing of the mythical moods and vibes of rural Waterland, the Netherlands. There are the writings of Nietzsche, Alain Fournier, and Bernard Stiegler, whose ghostly holograms spellbind their way into the album. There’s the magical and yet, irreparable out-of-tune pump organ from 1863, which Bond used to create an orchestra with an autoharp (zither), a mellotron, and a Dan Bau.
Passages Track Listing
- Storm Behind a Window
- Blisters
- Bread Games Giants Slaves
- Wonderful Life
- Sunshine Stay
- On Darkness
- More is not the Answer
- Maybe I’ve Been Lying
- Here in the Mountains the Visions Will Come
About Frank Bond
Frank Bond has an MA in English literature with a method of analysis for poetic song lyrics. Bond is also in the band Alasca, whose debut album, Actors & Liars, hit #9 in the Dutch charts upon release and gradually got picked up by BBC2 and BB6. It was followed by extensive tours in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. Between 2012 and 2019, they did four tours in the UK, where the album was released by the label IRL (now Beautiful World Agency). Bond also runs the independent music label King Forward Records he started with Alasca in 2011. He’s also an active engineer and producer, and project manager for the overarching Pop Organization NH Pop that supports upcoming talent in the Noord-Holland province. Alasca are back in the studio for their fourth album, which will be called The Disturbing Disappearance of Francis Blake.
Praise For Francis Alban Blake
“Incredible songwriting combined with a naturally enchanting soundscape, driven by strings and simple yet refined compositions.” – Music for the Misfits
