Piers Faccini is to release his seventh album ‘Shapes of the Fall’ (2 April). It is being released via his own label Beating Drum and Nø Førmat, the latter being home to artists such as Oumou Sangaré, Blick Bassy & Mélissa Laveaux. In fact, it is on Nø Førmat that Faccini makes a second appearance in April, as a guest on the new album from Malian kora virtuoso Ballaké Sissoko.
Those familiar with Piers Faccini’s career, one which now spans over twenty years, will be aware of the many collaborations he has worked on and it seems now only natural that any release he puts out should feature guest musicians. Shapes of the Fall is no exception which features Ben Harper who will be no stranger to most and Abdelkebir Merchane, the latter a name best known for leading Ouled Sidi H’Mou, founded in 1970 and a popular music group of Moroccan Gnawa in Marrakech. They are said to be one of the great messengers of the Gnawa art worldwide.
The album reflects on the duality of human nature, which part of our nature will prevail in the modern world. Of his lead single Faccini says; ‘The Real Way Out’ is a love song to life itself in the shape of an enigma, the unsolved mystery being, the impossibility of reconciling a perfect love with our imperfect identities.
His lyrics are beautifully poetic and thought-provoking…the opening plays with your mind, like looking at the world through a surreal looking glass which encourages us to question our relationship with the world and the choices we make…do we rise or fall…”You were the blood kissed by a thorn, I was the wind in the leaf, bent at the eye of the storm, North at the pole repelled and drawn, I wanted to fall or be reborn…”
Recorded live in a farmhouse studio in the French countryside, co-produced by Fred Soulard – ‘Shapes of the Fall’ draws heavily on Faccini’s own ancestry, on southern Italian, Arab-Andalusian and Sephardic modes and rhythms, bridging southern Europe with the Near East and Africa. Beginning with his fascination with Tarantismo from Puglia and the last known example of trance ritual and music in Europe, the album crosses the narrow straits of the Mediterranean, accompanied by two Algerian brothers and master instrumentalists, Malik and Karim Ziad, to interplay with trance traditions in the Maghreb and in Berber and Gnawa culture.
Pre-Order ‘Shapes Of The Fall’ here: https://idol.lnk.to/ShapesoftheFall