Bishop’s Trace

Copyright: Juliane Schäfer

Every once in a while, musicians will reach the point where they need to get their ideas out there on paper. This is what happened to BISHOP’S TRACE aka Christian S., drummer of the Saarbrücken post-rock band Flares, in early 2012. Even before the release of the Flares’ second EP „Kingdom Come“ on February 16, 2012, he began writing his own songs in his student dig – songs which would not have worked in the context of his band. After all, these were rather sparse, intimate acoustic guitar pieces with vocals, clearly influenced by Christian‘s longstanding admiration for the music of Jeff Buckley. A great set of songs – but how to continue from there?

First Christian showed them to his band, including keyboardist Mike Balzer, a then prospective sound engineer, who immediately agreed to take charge of producing the songs. The two spent many sleepless nights at the studio, kicking off a flow of creative energy which resulted in a departure from the original, purely acoustic guitar-driven sound. That‘s why the EP „Pocket Escapisms“ ultimately ended up being recorded with electric guitar, bass, piano and drums – all played by multi-instrumentalist Christian.

But Mike, the producer, and Flares guitarist Christian Detzler also contributed to the EP‘s sound with characteristic programming and guitar overdubs. The result is a set of five songs, sounding somewhere between Smashing Pumpkins, Elliott Smith, Aereogramme and early Portishead.

Chris performed the songs only twice on live occasions with the support of his two bandmates, before the Flares shifted their focus back to their first album „Solar Empire“, which was released on May 23, 2014.

„Pocket Escapisms“ first released on June 12, 2012 as limited cassette and CD editions on the Saarbrücken-based DIY label Puzzle Records, is reissued by Barhill Records as a digital re-release, newly remastered by its original producer Mike.

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Foto (© Benedikt Dresen)