Genre Peak to release new album feat. collaborations with Steve Jansen, Mick Karn, Richard Barbieri of Japan, Matt Malley of Counting Crows and Jon Hassell
Recoil and Japan fans, this is something for you. Electronic music act Genre Peak (who recently was featured in our industrial music Spotify playlist with the track “Portal Groove”) has collaborated with a variety of musicians for the new album “Your Sleekest Engine”. Genre Peak’s Martin Birke (formerly active with the electropop act Casualty Park) worked with a huge list of people including Steve Jansen (Japan/David Sylvian), Jon Hassell (Brian Eno/Peter Gabriel), Richard Barbieri (Japan/Porcupine Tree), Matt Malley (Counting Crows) next to Lesley Braden (Fast Arrow), Charlie Woodward (Falco/Strinx), Palestinian artist Manal Deeb and the late Mick Karn (Japan/Dalis Car/David Torn).
The release was co-produced by Christopher Scott Cooper and Martin Birke for In Code Music (Publishing) over a period of 3 years. The album will be released on Gonzo Multimedia UK on March 4, 2016 and is the follow-up to the ambient album “9 Microspheres”, released in 2013.
Here’s how the new album started to take shape: “I wanted to get back to where I could collaborate with singers and players. I approached Steve Jansen to remix a track off “Preternatural” I did with the late Mick Karn, Steve agreed but did much more than a remix, he composed a whole new original song which blew me away. I had Lesley Braden of the Seattle band Fast Arrow write & sing over it and I think it’s dark and glorious much like most of the songs I write. I then contacted Jon Hassell who has been a huge influence and is the reason I’m an electronic-percussionist, and we came up with the instrumental “Metanoia”. I started writing more songs with singer Charlie Woodward who sounds a bit like Jon Anderson of Yes to me (another favorite band) and we just clicked – thanks to Edo Castro (Pat Metheny Band) for introducing us.”
Rob Ayling of Gonzo Multimedia introduced Martin to Matt Malley of the Counting Crows and he delivered the bass on “God Fearing Men” and “American Civil Rage”. Award winning poet Michael Spring spoke his poem “First Born of the New Millennium” Martin wrote the music for that one, and Richard Barbieri did a remix of “Fix Me Deeper”.
Speaking of “Fix Me Deeper”, it’s not the first time that Birke has collaborated with Manal Deeb. Last summer Martin also recorded a track with the Palestinian-American multi-media artist for the Arabesque song “Fix Me Deeper”, which you can hear below.
Birke modelled Genre Peak after Alan Wilder’s Recoil and Massive Attack: “I find this the most exciting way to work, it’s always different and working with artists you grew up listening to is quite rewarding for me. I like to call Genre Peak’s music ‘electronica-organica’ as I use electronics with a warm live cinematic sound.”
This is what our Side-Line reviewer said about the project a while back: “Genre Peak realised a quite diversified piece of music, mixing different vocal, ambient and rhythm elements. There also is a real will and attention to distill great sound treatments. This is modern music covering a wide range of influences.”
You can order the “Your Sleekest Engine” CD right here on Amazon
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