Louis Tillett (13 March 1959 – 6 August 2023)

 

Australian rock singer Louis Tillett, known for his musical prowess and collaborations, passed

away on August 13, 2023 at the age of 64 after a battle with a serious illness, leaving behind a rich legacy. Tillett's legacy endures through the mark he left on the Australian music scene and the inspiration he offers to those who appreciate his artistry. His journey stands as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
                    

Despite grappling with these health challenges, Tillett's artistic spirit remained undeterred. He

continued to inspire through his dedication to music and his remarkable accomplishments. His passing marks the culmination of a life that encompassed both musical triumphs and personal hardships.
                    

One of Sydney’s most gifted and exceptional songwriters, nominated by the NFSA - National Film and Sound Archive of Australia as a “Priority Heritage Artist”, Louis Tillett provided a distinctive and

influential presence on the Australian underground music scene throughout the late 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s, leading groups like Wet Taxis, Paris Green and the Aspersion Caste. His impressive career has seen him be invited to collaborate with Leonard Cohen and Brian Eno, he has worked with Charlie Owen, Ed Kuepper, Tex Perkins, Don Walker and Brett Myers. Nick Cave called him “a pioneer that has been an inspiration to many of us”. Often the subject of urban music myth, his live and recorded performances have inspired and informed such artists as Kurt Cobain, The Flaming Lips and The White Stripes.
                              

Louis Rohan Tillett (13 March 1959 – 6 August 2023) was an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, keyboardist and saxophonist. Tillett was the front man in Australian bands The Wet Taxis, Paris Green and The Aspersion Caste. He also worked as a backing musician with Catfish, Laughing

Clowns, New Christs and Tex Perkins. After working with members of Died Pretty and Catfish, Tillett led the band The Aspersion Castle. In 2000, he was the subject of the documentary A Night At Sea With Louis Tillett. As a solo artist, he issued seven albums, Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (1987), A Cast of Aspersions (1990), Letters to a Dream (1992), Cry Against the Faith (1998), Learning to Die (2001), The Hanged Man (2005) and Soliloquy (2006). He often worked with Charlie Owen, releasing two albums, The Ugly Truth (1994) and Midnight Rain (October 1995). The latter album won the Rolling Stone Critics Award for Best Album of 1996.
                 

In June 1993 Tillett (on piano, Hammond organ, vocals and percussion) and Owen (on guitar and

percussion) recorded an album, The Ugly Truth, with Owen producing.[10] It was released in 1994 on Return to Sender/Normal Records. The pair released a second album together, Midnight Rain, in October 1995, which was produced by Tony Cohen.
                 

For that album Tillett provided lead vocals, piano, Hammond organ, Roland synthesiser and soprano

saxophone. The pair toured in support of the album. Midnight Rain won the Rolling Stone Critics Award for Best Album of 1996. Later that year Tillett and Owen joined Tex Perkins' backing band on a promotional tour for the latter's debut solo album, Far Be It from Me (August 1996).
              

CHARLES OWEN

             

Charles Lothian Lloyd "Charlie" Owen is an Australian multi-instrumentalist and producer. He

has been a member of The New Christs (1987–90), Louis Tillett and His Cast of Aspersions (1990), Tex, Don and Charlie (1993–95, 2005–06), Tendrils (1994–99) and Beasts of Bourbon (1996–97, 2003). His solo album, Vertigo and Other Phobias, was released in 1994 on Red Eye/Polydor.
                 

Owen has produced albums by The Plunderers, Louis Tillett (both solo and in a duo with Owen), Tex

Perkins, and Penny Ikinger. As a session player, he has appeared on albums by Tony Buck, Kim Salmon and the Surrealists, Robert Forster, Spencer P. Jones, The Cruel Sea, Steve Prestwich, Conway Savage and Don Walker.
             

In May 2012 Australian Guitar magazine listed Owen in the Top 40 of Australia's best guitarists.

LOUIS TILLETT & CHARLES OWEN - THE UGLY TRUTH 1993
    

Louis Tillett & Charlie Owen – The Ugly Truth
Label: Return To Sender – RTS 5
Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition
Country: Germany
Released: 1993
Genre: Rock
Style: Blues Rock, Acoustic, Folk Rock

TRACKS

              

01. Trip To Kalu-Ki-Bar
02. Sailor's Dream
03. Wilt
04. Swimming In The Mirror  (Organ [Hammond] – Charlie Owen)
05. The Rational One
06. From Me To You
07. One Kind Favour
08. The Ugly Truth
09. Liferaft
10. Condemned To Live
11. Ode To A Falling Star

NOTES

Recorded At – Atlantis Studios, Melbourn
Engineer – David McCluney
Guitar, Percussion – Charlie Owen
Piano, Vocals, Organ [Hammond], Percussion – Louis Tillett
Producer – Charlie Owen

MP3 @ 320 Size: 111 MB
Flac  Size: 261 MB

LOUIS TILLETT - EGO TRIPPING AT THE GATES OF HELL 1987
              

Louis Tillett – Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell
Label: Citadel – CGAS 802 CD, Citadel – CITCD 509, Citadel – RTD CD5-802
Format: CD, Album
Country: Germany
Released: 1987
Genre: Rock
Style: Blues Rock, Folk Rock, Alternative Rock

    

TRACKS

                 

01. Trip To Kalu-ki-bar    4:08
02. Duet In Blue Minor    5:24
03. Swimming In The Mirror    3:16
04. Dream Well    4:52
05. Voluntary Slavery    3:16
06. On Your Way Down    2:58
07. Persephone's Dance    3:35
08. Dead End Street In The Lucky Country    7:00

MP3 @ 320 Size: 83 MB
Flac  Size: 209 MB

Louis Tillett on Urban Aspirines HERE

Louis Tillett - A Cast Of Aspersions

Louis Tillett

A Cast Of Aspersions

1990





Label:Normal
Catalog#:CGAS 812 CD
Format:Cd
Country:Germany
Released:1990
Genre:Rock
Style:Indie Rock

Louis Tillett is an Australian singer-songwriter, keyboard player and saxophonist. He was the frontman in Australian bands The Wet Taxis, Paris Green and The Aspersion Caste. He has also worked as a backing musician with Catfish, former The Saints guitarist Ed Kuepper's group The Laughing Clowns, the New Christs and Tex Perkins.
The Wet Taxis, helming from Sydney, first toured Melbourne in February 1984. Hailed as sporting an American garage-style psychedelic sound, they covered bands such as MC5, Moving Sidewalks and Unrelated Segments.
The band were described by Sydney Morning Herald as one "of the most popular bands in the Australia's indie scene" in an article reminiscing over their then record label, the Britain-based Australian independent label Hot Records.
In March 1984, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on the release of an acoustic-based three-track single (EP), "Carnival of Souls", by No Dance. Each track was contributed by one of the members of the group: Tillett, Damien Lovelock of The Celibate Rifles and Brett Myers of Died Pretty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Tillett

Website :
http://www.louistillett.com/

Tracks
1. Carousel
2. Condemned To Live
3. From Me To You
4. Dig It Up
5. Liferaft
6. Long Walk Home
7. Children Of The Cave
8. Midnight Witch
Produced by Louis Tillet & Charlie Owen
Recorded at Trafalgar Studios, August 1989, Engineered by Alan Thorne

Musicians
Louis Tillet : Vocals, Piano, hammond Organ, Harmonica
Charlie Owen: Guitar
Lenny Bastiaans : Bass Guitar
Louis Burdett : Drums
Penny Ikinger :Guitar
Mary-Ellen Stringer : Vocals
Jason Morphett : Baritone, Tenor, Soprano Saxophone
Miroslav Bukovsky : Trumpet, Flugel Horn
Mark Simmonds : Tenor Saxophone
Diane Spence : Tenor Solo on 6
John Murphy & Arnie Hannah : Noises on 7
Mp3 @ 320 & Scans 95MB
Take It Here

Biography
By IAN McFARLANE
(Author of ‘The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop’)
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s LOUIS TILLETT provided a commanding and distinctive presence on the Australian alternative music scene. He was a softly spoken individual, yet it was his rich baritone singing voice (once described as “burning like a deep wound… like it’s oozing from the cracks of a tomb”), characteristic keyboard technique and exceptional song writing skills that earned him a reputation as an artist of considerable imagination, authority and conviction, and as a sideman of redoubtable stature. In addition to leading groups like the Wet Taxis, Paris Green and the Aspersion Caste, his work as a backing musician with Catfish, Ed Kuepper, the New Christs and Tex Perkins kept him firmly in the public eye.


Louis’s first band, the Wet Taxis, commenced life as an experimental outfit in the manner of fellow Sydneysiders Severed Heads and Scattered Order before taking on a tougher 1960s-influenced direction. Their classic debut single on the Hot label, ‘C’mon’ (1984), boasted an authentic garage/R&B sound heavily influenced by such American garage/punk bands as the Moving Sidewalks, We the People and the Chocolate Watchband plus legendary Australian group the Atlantics (who originally issued the song as ‘Come On’ in 1967). Alongside the likes of Died Pretty, the Celibate Rifles, the Lime Spiders, the New Christs, the Hoodoo Gurus and the Eastern Dark, the Wet Taxis came to epitomise the Australian garage rock sound and aesthetic of the 1980s. The band’s only album was the appropriately named From the Archives (Hot, 1984).

The 1960s garage rock sound served the Wet Taxis well, yet Louis was constantly in search of new musical terrain to explore. This led him to the acoustic-based No Dance side project with Died Pretty’s Brett Myers and Celibate Rifles’ Damien Lovelock (one EP, ‘Carnival of Souls’ in 1984) and the improvisational jazz/blues-influenced Paris Green ensemble which covered material ranging from Mose Allison and John Coltrane to Ray Charles. Following the release of the Wet Taxis single ‘Sailor’s Dream’ on the Citadel label (1987), Louis folded the band and immediately recorded his debut solo album Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell with support from a stellar array of local musicians including guitarist Charlie Owen and drummer Louis Burdett. The album relied upon a brooding intensity for its emotional effect, yet there was always a lighter more positive side as displayed on tracks like ‘Trip to Kalu-Ki-Bar’.

His next band the Aspersion Caste included Owen, Burdett, ex-Wet Taxis guitarist Penny Ikinger and a powerful horn section and was heard on A Cast of Aspersions (1990) and its astonishing single ‘Condemned to Live’. A Cast of Aspersions was an eclectic and potent exploration of mood and emotions driven by Louis’s booming baritone voice and smouldering organ, jagged guitar lines and the swinging brass arrangements. Louis kept the Aspersion Caste on the road (including performances in Europe and New York) until 1992 when he recorded his next solo album Letters to a Dream. In 1995, he collaborated with Owen on the album Midnight Rain before they joined Ken Gormly and Jim Elliot (from the Cruel Sea) as backing musicians for Tex Perkins, on tour to promote his 1996 solo album Far be it From Me.

Louis released his last album, Cry against the Faith, in 1999. As well as travelling overseas and succumbing to bouts of ill-health due to his well-publicised battle with alcoholism, he continued to put in occasional live performances around Sydney (often with help from Gormly and Elliot). An ABC-TV documentary produced a few years ago on the man, A Night at Sea, provided rare insight into his role as a performer and his struggles with personal demons. He has now emerged in 2005 with renewed vigour. All of which brings us to his new album, The Hanged Man, an exemplary return to form and a solo release in the truest sense. Louis recorded The Hanged Man in Bangkok, Thailand in July 2004 with a local engineer called O, and it focuses squarely on his skills as a song writer, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist par excellence – a remarkable achievement from a remarkable musician.

The deep connection to the blues/jazz/swamp rock feel essential to his sound has remained, yet there is so much more. One only has to listen to the nine brilliant tracks to hear the emotional outpouring on offer here. Louis has opened his heart and soul, faced down his demons and overcome his fears in the most cathartic way – song writing and recording as personal therapy. With lyric lines throughout the album as compelling and insightful as the following:

“… shows me the journey I must make” (‘Ocean Bound’)
“… I now have some hope, this will keep me afloat” (‘Four Walls’)
“… the main thing I want is these voices to stop” (‘Through the Dream’)
“… I pray for redemption and hope for a sign” (‘Prayer Before Dawn’)
“… it all seems to go away with the start of a brand new day” (‘Around You’)
“… I’m looking high I’m looking low, now it’s clear what I must do” (‘It’s Alright Now’)
and
“… a dream fulfilled, a love rebuilt… I’ve returned to a perfect friend, the journey’s end”
(‘Teary Eyes’)

…this is Louis embracing the very joyousness of a bright future.

The Hanged Man features music as vital, beautiful, emotional and uncompromising as any in the history of Australian rock. Take the time to accept this incredible musician and his art.

Discography :
Solo
Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (1987)
A Cast of Aspersions (1990)
Letters to a Dream (1992)
Cry Against the Faith (1998)
Learning to Die (2001)
The Hanged Man (2005)
Soliloquy (2006)

Το "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell" είναι και εδώ [ στον φίλο μας Διομήδη] :
http://diomidis69.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post_18.html