LYDIA LUNCH, CYPRESS GROVE, SPIRITUAL FRONT
''TWIN HORSES''
JANUARY 5 2015
43:11
1 Death Is Hanging over Me/Nikki Sudden 03:00
2 Unholy Ghosts 04:36
3 Rising Moon 04:10
4 Put You Down/James Johnston, Lydia Lunch 04:14
5 Hotel California/Don Felder, Don Henley, Glenn Grey 06:00
6 Buried Friend 04:01
7 My Love Won't Fade 04:15
8 My Name Is Written in the Ashes of Mouraria 04:48
9 Dear Lucifer 04:32
10 L.O.V.E. Machine/W.A.S.P. 03:29
Tracks 6 To 9 By Simone Salvatori
Riccardo Galati/Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar, Bass, Percussion & Arranger On 6 To 10
Fabio Colucci/Backing Vocals, Classical Guitar, Percussion, Drum Programming & Arranger On 1 To 5
Simone Salvatori/Arranger On 6 To 10
Jordan Reyne/Backing Vocals On 6 To 10
Jeff Zentner/Banjo, Mandolin On 3
Lydia Lunch & Cypress Grove/Guitar, Bass & Vocals On 1 To 5
Mick Cozens/Guitar, Harmonica On 4, 5
Philippe Petit/Keyboards On 2, 4
Willie Love/Percussion On 1 To 5
Massimo Guerra/Trumpet, Alto Horn On 6 To 10
Suzie Stapleton/Vocals On 5
Simone Salvatori/Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar, Percussion On 6 To 10
Lydia Lunch/Vocals, Guitar On 1 To 5
ABOUT THE ALBUM
BY WWW.RUSTBLADE.COM
After the great success of the desert hit A Fistful Of Desert Blues, Lydia Lunch & Cypress Grove meet the nihilist folk of Spiritual Front.
Twin Horses is the encounter between two intense musical souls. Miss Lunch’s melancholic Acoustic Blues meets Simone Salvatori’s Sensual and Cathartic Folk.
Lydia Lunch’s voice has never been so touching and moving; on the other side there is an inspired Spiritual Front that does not settle but goes beyond the soul of “suicide pop” to give us it’s new acoustic soul. On Twin Horses, besides unedited pieces, Lydia and Cypress interpret the Eagles’ song “Hotel California” in a desert blues style and Simone plays his version of W.A.S.P.’s “Love Machine” in folk style.
A fundamental album for two wonderful thoroughbreads.
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek/AMG
Twin Horses is a split offering from Lydia Lunch, guitarist Cypress Grove, and Italian dark folk outfit Spiritual Front. It is a complementary match. Lunch and Grove -- as evidenced by their work on the Jeffrey Lee Pierce tributes and their A Fistful of Desert Blues from 2014 -- have woven together various strains of blues, folk, noir-ish American Gothic, roots rock, and cinematic atmospherics into an identity. Spiritual Front, led by enigmatic chansonnier and guitarist Simone Salvatori, have been around since 1999. Their meld of neo-classical, doomy rock, various European, Mediterranean, and South American folk and cabaret styles melds concept and mood with considerable musical craft and charismatic force. Lunch and Grove open the album with one of two covers. Nikki Sudden's "Death Is Hanging Over Me" features (uncharacteristically) Grove on lead vocals and Lunch as his duet partner. Its instruments are sparsely strummed acoustic and reverbed electric slide guitars. "Rising Moon" is an eerie waltz, carried by the Lunch's voice atop acoustic slide guitar, banjo, percussion, and ambient textures. Full of foreboding, it could have come right out of a James M. Cain novel. Their other cover is the Eagles' "Hotel California." It scrapes the sheeny surface to get down inside its desert country feel and, as spoken/sung by Lunch, offers myriad layers of the lyric's meaning -- not without twisted humor and irony, either. Salvatori's subterranean grain of a voice is the male counterpart to Lunch's -- deep, ragged, and expressive. Spiritual Front's songs criss-cross their vision of spaghetti western-infused Americana ("Buried Front") with a doomed, Morricone-esque sensuality ("My Name Is Written in the Ashes of Mouraria") courtesy of elegant, even graceful horns, and a flat-out trance-like Gothic rock à la the Sisters of Mercy ("Dear Lucifer"). Their cover here is an artfully rendered acoustic version of W.A.S.P.'s "L.o.v.e. Machine." Their performances, arrangements, and writing are confident and strong. Twin Horses is a curious offering but a solid one; its unmistakably tragic romantic vision is both memorable and unsettling.
BIOGRAPHY (LYDIA LUNCH)
by Steve Huey/AMG
After leaving the seminal New York no wave outfit Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, poet/actress/vocalist Lydia Lunch (b. Lydia Koch) embarked on a solo career marked by frequent collaborations and band changes, plus an attitude of confrontational nihilism expressed in both her sound and her often violent and/or sexually oriented subject matter. Upon leaving Teenage Jesus, Lunch first formed Beirut Slump, but departed after one single. Her solo debut, 1980's Queen of Siam, proved to be one of her most acclaimed efforts, as was her next band, the funk-inflected 8 Eyed Spy. However, that band broke up due to the death of bassist George Scott, and Lunch went back out on her own.
After 1982's 13.13, which featured former members of the Weirdos, Lunch began a rash of collaborations, working with the Birthday Party on the EP The Agony Is the Ecstasy, as well as Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Haut, Sort Sol, Swans' Michael Gira, and members of Sonic Youth. Lunch founded her own Widowspeak label in 1985, immediately delving into spoken word with the EP The Uncensored Lydia Lunch and reissuing much of her back catalog, including a two-CD retrospective, Hysterie, in 1986. Her next collaboration was the first of several with Jim "Foetus" Thirlwell, who remixed a shelved project with Birthday Party members from 1982-1983; it was issued as Honeymoon in Red in 1987. The two also released the Stinkfist EP under Thirlwell's Clint Ruin alias in 1989. That same year, Lunch teamed with Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon in Harry Crews, a one-off, all-female noise rock band, for the LP Naked in Garden Hills. Aside from an EP with ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard in 1991, Shotgun Wedding, plus her acting career in underground films, Lunch concentrated on the spoken word arena into the '90s; a three-CD retrospective of this aspect of her career, Crimes Against Nature, was issued in 1993, and Lunch continued her activities throughout the decade.
During the first decade of the 2000s, she switched primarily between spoken word and music -- though she continued to publish her writing and, occasionally, acted -- evidently as inspired and active as she was during the first years of her career. Though a confusing number of anthologies and reissues were released during this time, Lunch continued to produce a large volume of new material, highlighted by The Devil's Racetrack (2000), Memory and Madness (co-credited to Gallon Drunk's Terry Edwards, 2003), Willing Victim (2005), Touch My Evil (with Anubian Lights, 2006),
In 2007, Lunch and Omar-Rodriguez Lopez collaborated on a self-titled mini album, physically issued by the Netherlands' Willie Anderson Recordings label, and digitally by the guitarist's. It was followed by the limited-edition issue of Amnesia by Contemporanea in 2009. She also recorded Big Sexy Noise in a trio with Gallon Drunk's James Johnston and Ian White that year; it was released by Cherry Red and followed by a European and Australian tour.
Twist of Fate, a live collaborations with sound artist Philippe Petit from a concert in Berlin, was released in 2010 and also featured a film of the show. Lunch continued to perform at museums and theaters internationally as well as taking photographs, which have been exhibited globally.
2013 proved to be a prolific year in the artist's career. Her live band offering, Retro Virus (her backing trio included guitarist Weasel Walter, drummer Bob Bert, and bassist Algis Kyzis), was issued by Interbang, and followed by a double album with Petit entitled Taste Our Voodoo and an experimental trio set entitled Medusa's Bed with Zahra Mani and Mia Zabelka. In November, Lunch performed a new work, Dust & Shadows in collaboration with videographer Elise Passavant as part of the Louisville Museum's 21 century exhibition, Aftermath: Witnessing War, Countenancing Compassion.
In June of 2014, the artist and guitarist Cypress Grove delivered a set of gothic Americana love songs called, A Fistful of Desert Blues. The pair reteamed for a split album with doomy European folk outfit Spiritual Front on the album Twin Horses, which was released in early 2015.
BIOGRAPHY (CYPRESS GROVE)
BY WIKIPEDIA
Cypress Grove (born 28 May 1959) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, composer and producer. After gaining an honours degree in Psychology at University College London, he decided to follow a career in music.
Cypress Grove was born in London into a musical family. His father was a professional jazz drummer who at one time played with The Chris Barber band. Grove was taught by his father to play drums at an early age, but by the time he turned 16, his interest had switched to guitar.
By the age of 18, he started to join a number of new wave bands and would gig regularly. His musical direction started to turn towards alternative rock and he was influenced by bands such as The Birthday Party, The Pop Group, and Einstürzende Neubauten. But his infatuation for pre-war acoustic blues continued to develop and led to a chance encounter with Jeffrey Lee Pierce from The Gun Club in 1988. Pierce had a real passion for roots music of any kind so they started to jam together regularly on acoustic guitars in Grove's bedroom. Pierce invited Grove to collaborate with him on his long planned album of roots material. The album was released in 1992 – Ramblin' Jeffrey Lee and Cypress Grove with Willie Love. Cypress and Jeffrey went on to tour the album both with a band and as an acoustic duo.
In October 1994, Pierce and Grove were filmed for Henri-Jean Debon's Hard Times Killin' Floor Blues film. The film was eventually released in 2008. After Pierce's death in March 1996 from a brain haemorrhage, Grove moved to France for three years, travelling the entire country, playing various gigs, festivals and radio sessions.
In 2006, Cypress Grove discovered a tape of Pierce and himself rehearsing some songs that Pierce was in the process of writing. These were plainly works in progress, and while the quality was deemed too poor for release, Grove started to record the songs properly and invited a number of friends, colleagues and admirers of Pierce to help him complete them. This undertaking became The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Session Project, an endeavour that has currently produced three albums, with a fourth and final volume in the pipeline. Grove has recorded with a number of musicians including Nick Cave, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Mark Lanegan, Iggy Pop, Isobel Campbell, Thurston Moore, Warren Ellis, The Raveonettes, Crippled Black Phoenix, Mick Harvey, David Eugene Edwards, Hugo Race, Bertrand Cantat, Barry Adamson, Lydia Lunch, Jim Sclavunos, Mark Stewart and James Johnston.
In 2010, Cypress Grove and Lydia Lunch decided to expand on their successful pairing during the The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Session Project and recorded A Fistful of Desert Blues.
BIOGRAPHY (SPIRITUAL FRONT)
BY WIKIPEDIA
Spiritual Front is a five-part neofolk act from Rome. Its members describe their music as "nihilist suicide pop",[1] although elements of neoclassical and rock music, melancholic folk, as well as tango are prevalent, along with a recurring experimental feel. From dark, wailing experimental folk in the beginning, the sound began to transform and grow, to where it is now compared to the work of Nick Cave, Swans, and Scott Walker. The group's work has been described as crossing a wide variety of genres and musical styles or traditions, and the band itself is considered[by whom?] highly unique among the modern neofolk and post-industrial scenes in Europe. The ingenuity and constructiveness of Spiritual Front's songs have gained them somewhat of a cult following since their formation in the late 1990s.
The band originated in 1999 as a project fronted by Simone "Hellvis" Salvatori, a guitarist and singer from Italy. They have since worked extensively — both solo and with several other projects— on their musical output. The group has performed subsequent tours throughout Europe, eastern Europe and South America.
Their song, The Gift of Life, appeared on the original score of the American slasher film Saw II, Jesus died in Las Vegas appeared in the American Television series 'Las Vegas'. Their music is also frequently used for theater pieces, modern ballets and shorts. The group is invited regularly to national and international radio interviews with their work being transmitted across the world (Tattoo magazines, Alternative Culture, Fashion, etc.)
Someone describes Spiritual Front's music "Mafia-Folk" because of their Italian roots. Simone Salvatori, the lyricist and conceptualist behind the band, has been known to create a unique feel within their traditionally folk style. Their most noticeable recurring output is Simone's charismatic playing of the acoustic guitar,[2] along with martial drum beats characteristic of the neofolk genre, art rock and new wave influences and heavily decadent musical styles. Slow, dissonant and often melancholic vocals are often contrasted with cabaret-like, somewhat comedic pieces reminiscent of swing revival and neotango sound, bringing on a vast dichotomy in the musical output of the band. Emotional piano chords are also frequently featured, with occasional violin playing and solos as well as the utilization of a number of different instruments including synthesizers, lutes and pipe organs.
Over time the group's style has constantly and quickly changed: beginning with the dark ballads of the earliest years after their formation (as is present in such works as Song for the Will and Nihilist Cocktails for Calypso Inferno), through the more refined sentimental dark folk with the E.P. Satyriasis until their latest records such as Armageddon Gigolo and Rotten Roma Casino where classical folk and tango influences are evident. (Members of the Ennio Morricone orchestra were involved.) During 2013 the band published two different albums: 'Open wounds' (Trisol records), a double cd collection with their classic songs from the first era (1999-2004)re-mastered and re-arranged plus previously unreleased tracks, and 'Black hearts in black suits' (Rustblade records), a concept album about the German movie director W.R. Fassbinder, the album has been described as neo classical chamber pop music, a mix between Arvo Part and Marc Almond.
The themes of focus in Spiritual Front's music vary and are extensive, though most often seem to be either quite personal or introverted, perhaps to lead singer Salvatori's own life. However lyrics in the group's music tend to be characterized by a type of English and rarely Italian, as well as free-verse type poetic styles influenced by decadent references to various, often obscure subjects. Therefore there is a tangible difficulty in deciphering the analogies behind the individual songs, and whether or not many of Spiritual Front's albums should be placed as concept works.
Themes treated by Simone H. deal with searching for self-identity through turbid and untamed exploration of sexuality, stories of breaking up with anger at bitter sarcasm and irony, always touched with nihilism and biting humor. (However a typical sense of heathenry is not so apparent as in many other neofolk groups such as Of the Wand and the Moon or Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio.)
Sex, sexual abasement, destructive passions, religion, self-destruction, pornography and frankly lewd topics of paraphilia and sadomasochism are expressed in decadent styles of swing revival and acoustic folk ballads.
Simone Salvatori, who composes the lyrics and much of the music for the band, quotes in a number of songs phrases from literature and film.
Several songs draw their inspiration from the controversial Italian cult film Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (English: Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom) by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The film is a reinterpretation and pseudo-adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom utilizing elements of Dante's Inferno; both the film and the Marquis's work incorporate sexuality coupled by extreme aggression or a "master-slave" archetype. The quotes include: "The limit of love is that, of needing always an accomplice," and "Nothing is more contagious than sin." (featured in the songs No Kisses On the Mouth and Jesus Died in Las Vegas, respectively.)Other important references are: W.R. Fassbinder, Federico Fellini, Joao Pedro Rodriguez, Ingmar Bergmann, Derek Jarman. The band made tribute with a number of other groups to Pasolini, contributing several songs to the 2009 compilation Songs For A Child: A Tribute to Pierre Paolo Pasolini.
The title of the song My Kingdom For A Horse (from the 2006 album Armageddon Gigolo) is taken directly from a famous line in Shakespeare's play Richard III: "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse."
The final track of Armageddon Gigolo, entitled Redemption Or Myself features a background track playing part of The Shangri-Las' Give Us Your Blessings.
''TWIN HORSES''
JANUARY 5 2015
43:11
1 Death Is Hanging over Me/Nikki Sudden 03:00
2 Unholy Ghosts 04:36
3 Rising Moon 04:10
4 Put You Down/James Johnston, Lydia Lunch 04:14
5 Hotel California/Don Felder, Don Henley, Glenn Grey 06:00
6 Buried Friend 04:01
7 My Love Won't Fade 04:15
8 My Name Is Written in the Ashes of Mouraria 04:48
9 Dear Lucifer 04:32
10 L.O.V.E. Machine/W.A.S.P. 03:29
Tracks 6 To 9 By Simone Salvatori
Riccardo Galati/Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar, Bass, Percussion & Arranger On 6 To 10
Fabio Colucci/Backing Vocals, Classical Guitar, Percussion, Drum Programming & Arranger On 1 To 5
Simone Salvatori/Arranger On 6 To 10
Jordan Reyne/Backing Vocals On 6 To 10
Jeff Zentner/Banjo, Mandolin On 3
Lydia Lunch & Cypress Grove/Guitar, Bass & Vocals On 1 To 5
Mick Cozens/Guitar, Harmonica On 4, 5
Philippe Petit/Keyboards On 2, 4
Willie Love/Percussion On 1 To 5
Massimo Guerra/Trumpet, Alto Horn On 6 To 10
Suzie Stapleton/Vocals On 5
Simone Salvatori/Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar, Percussion On 6 To 10
Lydia Lunch/Vocals, Guitar On 1 To 5
ABOUT THE ALBUM
BY WWW.RUSTBLADE.COM
After the great success of the desert hit A Fistful Of Desert Blues, Lydia Lunch & Cypress Grove meet the nihilist folk of Spiritual Front.
Twin Horses is the encounter between two intense musical souls. Miss Lunch’s melancholic Acoustic Blues meets Simone Salvatori’s Sensual and Cathartic Folk.
Lydia Lunch’s voice has never been so touching and moving; on the other side there is an inspired Spiritual Front that does not settle but goes beyond the soul of “suicide pop” to give us it’s new acoustic soul. On Twin Horses, besides unedited pieces, Lydia and Cypress interpret the Eagles’ song “Hotel California” in a desert blues style and Simone plays his version of W.A.S.P.’s “Love Machine” in folk style.
A fundamental album for two wonderful thoroughbreads.
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek/AMG
Twin Horses is a split offering from Lydia Lunch, guitarist Cypress Grove, and Italian dark folk outfit Spiritual Front. It is a complementary match. Lunch and Grove -- as evidenced by their work on the Jeffrey Lee Pierce tributes and their A Fistful of Desert Blues from 2014 -- have woven together various strains of blues, folk, noir-ish American Gothic, roots rock, and cinematic atmospherics into an identity. Spiritual Front, led by enigmatic chansonnier and guitarist Simone Salvatori, have been around since 1999. Their meld of neo-classical, doomy rock, various European, Mediterranean, and South American folk and cabaret styles melds concept and mood with considerable musical craft and charismatic force. Lunch and Grove open the album with one of two covers. Nikki Sudden's "Death Is Hanging Over Me" features (uncharacteristically) Grove on lead vocals and Lunch as his duet partner. Its instruments are sparsely strummed acoustic and reverbed electric slide guitars. "Rising Moon" is an eerie waltz, carried by the Lunch's voice atop acoustic slide guitar, banjo, percussion, and ambient textures. Full of foreboding, it could have come right out of a James M. Cain novel. Their other cover is the Eagles' "Hotel California." It scrapes the sheeny surface to get down inside its desert country feel and, as spoken/sung by Lunch, offers myriad layers of the lyric's meaning -- not without twisted humor and irony, either. Salvatori's subterranean grain of a voice is the male counterpart to Lunch's -- deep, ragged, and expressive. Spiritual Front's songs criss-cross their vision of spaghetti western-infused Americana ("Buried Front") with a doomed, Morricone-esque sensuality ("My Name Is Written in the Ashes of Mouraria") courtesy of elegant, even graceful horns, and a flat-out trance-like Gothic rock à la the Sisters of Mercy ("Dear Lucifer"). Their cover here is an artfully rendered acoustic version of W.A.S.P.'s "L.o.v.e. Machine." Their performances, arrangements, and writing are confident and strong. Twin Horses is a curious offering but a solid one; its unmistakably tragic romantic vision is both memorable and unsettling.
BIOGRAPHY (LYDIA LUNCH)
by Steve Huey/AMG
After leaving the seminal New York no wave outfit Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, poet/actress/vocalist Lydia Lunch (b. Lydia Koch) embarked on a solo career marked by frequent collaborations and band changes, plus an attitude of confrontational nihilism expressed in both her sound and her often violent and/or sexually oriented subject matter. Upon leaving Teenage Jesus, Lunch first formed Beirut Slump, but departed after one single. Her solo debut, 1980's Queen of Siam, proved to be one of her most acclaimed efforts, as was her next band, the funk-inflected 8 Eyed Spy. However, that band broke up due to the death of bassist George Scott, and Lunch went back out on her own.
After 1982's 13.13, which featured former members of the Weirdos, Lunch began a rash of collaborations, working with the Birthday Party on the EP The Agony Is the Ecstasy, as well as Einstürzende Neubauten, Die Haut, Sort Sol, Swans' Michael Gira, and members of Sonic Youth. Lunch founded her own Widowspeak label in 1985, immediately delving into spoken word with the EP The Uncensored Lydia Lunch and reissuing much of her back catalog, including a two-CD retrospective, Hysterie, in 1986. Her next collaboration was the first of several with Jim "Foetus" Thirlwell, who remixed a shelved project with Birthday Party members from 1982-1983; it was issued as Honeymoon in Red in 1987. The two also released the Stinkfist EP under Thirlwell's Clint Ruin alias in 1989. That same year, Lunch teamed with Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon in Harry Crews, a one-off, all-female noise rock band, for the LP Naked in Garden Hills. Aside from an EP with ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland S. Howard in 1991, Shotgun Wedding, plus her acting career in underground films, Lunch concentrated on the spoken word arena into the '90s; a three-CD retrospective of this aspect of her career, Crimes Against Nature, was issued in 1993, and Lunch continued her activities throughout the decade.
During the first decade of the 2000s, she switched primarily between spoken word and music -- though she continued to publish her writing and, occasionally, acted -- evidently as inspired and active as she was during the first years of her career. Though a confusing number of anthologies and reissues were released during this time, Lunch continued to produce a large volume of new material, highlighted by The Devil's Racetrack (2000), Memory and Madness (co-credited to Gallon Drunk's Terry Edwards, 2003), Willing Victim (2005), Touch My Evil (with Anubian Lights, 2006),
In 2007, Lunch and Omar-Rodriguez Lopez collaborated on a self-titled mini album, physically issued by the Netherlands' Willie Anderson Recordings label, and digitally by the guitarist's. It was followed by the limited-edition issue of Amnesia by Contemporanea in 2009. She also recorded Big Sexy Noise in a trio with Gallon Drunk's James Johnston and Ian White that year; it was released by Cherry Red and followed by a European and Australian tour.
Twist of Fate, a live collaborations with sound artist Philippe Petit from a concert in Berlin, was released in 2010 and also featured a film of the show. Lunch continued to perform at museums and theaters internationally as well as taking photographs, which have been exhibited globally.
2013 proved to be a prolific year in the artist's career. Her live band offering, Retro Virus (her backing trio included guitarist Weasel Walter, drummer Bob Bert, and bassist Algis Kyzis), was issued by Interbang, and followed by a double album with Petit entitled Taste Our Voodoo and an experimental trio set entitled Medusa's Bed with Zahra Mani and Mia Zabelka. In November, Lunch performed a new work, Dust & Shadows in collaboration with videographer Elise Passavant as part of the Louisville Museum's 21 century exhibition, Aftermath: Witnessing War, Countenancing Compassion.
In June of 2014, the artist and guitarist Cypress Grove delivered a set of gothic Americana love songs called, A Fistful of Desert Blues. The pair reteamed for a split album with doomy European folk outfit Spiritual Front on the album Twin Horses, which was released in early 2015.
BIOGRAPHY (CYPRESS GROVE)
BY WIKIPEDIA
Cypress Grove (born 28 May 1959) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, composer and producer. After gaining an honours degree in Psychology at University College London, he decided to follow a career in music.
Cypress Grove was born in London into a musical family. His father was a professional jazz drummer who at one time played with The Chris Barber band. Grove was taught by his father to play drums at an early age, but by the time he turned 16, his interest had switched to guitar.
By the age of 18, he started to join a number of new wave bands and would gig regularly. His musical direction started to turn towards alternative rock and he was influenced by bands such as The Birthday Party, The Pop Group, and Einstürzende Neubauten. But his infatuation for pre-war acoustic blues continued to develop and led to a chance encounter with Jeffrey Lee Pierce from The Gun Club in 1988. Pierce had a real passion for roots music of any kind so they started to jam together regularly on acoustic guitars in Grove's bedroom. Pierce invited Grove to collaborate with him on his long planned album of roots material. The album was released in 1992 – Ramblin' Jeffrey Lee and Cypress Grove with Willie Love. Cypress and Jeffrey went on to tour the album both with a band and as an acoustic duo.
In October 1994, Pierce and Grove were filmed for Henri-Jean Debon's Hard Times Killin' Floor Blues film. The film was eventually released in 2008. After Pierce's death in March 1996 from a brain haemorrhage, Grove moved to France for three years, travelling the entire country, playing various gigs, festivals and radio sessions.
In 2006, Cypress Grove discovered a tape of Pierce and himself rehearsing some songs that Pierce was in the process of writing. These were plainly works in progress, and while the quality was deemed too poor for release, Grove started to record the songs properly and invited a number of friends, colleagues and admirers of Pierce to help him complete them. This undertaking became The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Session Project, an endeavour that has currently produced three albums, with a fourth and final volume in the pipeline. Grove has recorded with a number of musicians including Nick Cave, Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Mark Lanegan, Iggy Pop, Isobel Campbell, Thurston Moore, Warren Ellis, The Raveonettes, Crippled Black Phoenix, Mick Harvey, David Eugene Edwards, Hugo Race, Bertrand Cantat, Barry Adamson, Lydia Lunch, Jim Sclavunos, Mark Stewart and James Johnston.
In 2010, Cypress Grove and Lydia Lunch decided to expand on their successful pairing during the The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Session Project and recorded A Fistful of Desert Blues.
BIOGRAPHY (SPIRITUAL FRONT)
BY WIKIPEDIA
Spiritual Front is a five-part neofolk act from Rome. Its members describe their music as "nihilist suicide pop",[1] although elements of neoclassical and rock music, melancholic folk, as well as tango are prevalent, along with a recurring experimental feel. From dark, wailing experimental folk in the beginning, the sound began to transform and grow, to where it is now compared to the work of Nick Cave, Swans, and Scott Walker. The group's work has been described as crossing a wide variety of genres and musical styles or traditions, and the band itself is considered[by whom?] highly unique among the modern neofolk and post-industrial scenes in Europe. The ingenuity and constructiveness of Spiritual Front's songs have gained them somewhat of a cult following since their formation in the late 1990s.
The band originated in 1999 as a project fronted by Simone "Hellvis" Salvatori, a guitarist and singer from Italy. They have since worked extensively — both solo and with several other projects— on their musical output. The group has performed subsequent tours throughout Europe, eastern Europe and South America.
Their song, The Gift of Life, appeared on the original score of the American slasher film Saw II, Jesus died in Las Vegas appeared in the American Television series 'Las Vegas'. Their music is also frequently used for theater pieces, modern ballets and shorts. The group is invited regularly to national and international radio interviews with their work being transmitted across the world (Tattoo magazines, Alternative Culture, Fashion, etc.)
Someone describes Spiritual Front's music "Mafia-Folk" because of their Italian roots. Simone Salvatori, the lyricist and conceptualist behind the band, has been known to create a unique feel within their traditionally folk style. Their most noticeable recurring output is Simone's charismatic playing of the acoustic guitar,[2] along with martial drum beats characteristic of the neofolk genre, art rock and new wave influences and heavily decadent musical styles. Slow, dissonant and often melancholic vocals are often contrasted with cabaret-like, somewhat comedic pieces reminiscent of swing revival and neotango sound, bringing on a vast dichotomy in the musical output of the band. Emotional piano chords are also frequently featured, with occasional violin playing and solos as well as the utilization of a number of different instruments including synthesizers, lutes and pipe organs.
Over time the group's style has constantly and quickly changed: beginning with the dark ballads of the earliest years after their formation (as is present in such works as Song for the Will and Nihilist Cocktails for Calypso Inferno), through the more refined sentimental dark folk with the E.P. Satyriasis until their latest records such as Armageddon Gigolo and Rotten Roma Casino where classical folk and tango influences are evident. (Members of the Ennio Morricone orchestra were involved.) During 2013 the band published two different albums: 'Open wounds' (Trisol records), a double cd collection with their classic songs from the first era (1999-2004)re-mastered and re-arranged plus previously unreleased tracks, and 'Black hearts in black suits' (Rustblade records), a concept album about the German movie director W.R. Fassbinder, the album has been described as neo classical chamber pop music, a mix between Arvo Part and Marc Almond.
The themes of focus in Spiritual Front's music vary and are extensive, though most often seem to be either quite personal or introverted, perhaps to lead singer Salvatori's own life. However lyrics in the group's music tend to be characterized by a type of English and rarely Italian, as well as free-verse type poetic styles influenced by decadent references to various, often obscure subjects. Therefore there is a tangible difficulty in deciphering the analogies behind the individual songs, and whether or not many of Spiritual Front's albums should be placed as concept works.
Themes treated by Simone H. deal with searching for self-identity through turbid and untamed exploration of sexuality, stories of breaking up with anger at bitter sarcasm and irony, always touched with nihilism and biting humor. (However a typical sense of heathenry is not so apparent as in many other neofolk groups such as Of the Wand and the Moon or Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio.)
Sex, sexual abasement, destructive passions, religion, self-destruction, pornography and frankly lewd topics of paraphilia and sadomasochism are expressed in decadent styles of swing revival and acoustic folk ballads.
Simone Salvatori, who composes the lyrics and much of the music for the band, quotes in a number of songs phrases from literature and film.
Several songs draw their inspiration from the controversial Italian cult film Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (English: Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom) by Pier Paolo Pasolini. The film is a reinterpretation and pseudo-adaptation of the Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom utilizing elements of Dante's Inferno; both the film and the Marquis's work incorporate sexuality coupled by extreme aggression or a "master-slave" archetype. The quotes include: "The limit of love is that, of needing always an accomplice," and "Nothing is more contagious than sin." (featured in the songs No Kisses On the Mouth and Jesus Died in Las Vegas, respectively.)Other important references are: W.R. Fassbinder, Federico Fellini, Joao Pedro Rodriguez, Ingmar Bergmann, Derek Jarman. The band made tribute with a number of other groups to Pasolini, contributing several songs to the 2009 compilation Songs For A Child: A Tribute to Pierre Paolo Pasolini.
The title of the song My Kingdom For A Horse (from the 2006 album Armageddon Gigolo) is taken directly from a famous line in Shakespeare's play Richard III: "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse."
The final track of Armageddon Gigolo, entitled Redemption Or Myself features a background track playing part of The Shangri-Las' Give Us Your Blessings.