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The Chapel Of Ease

When Night Falls

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Having worked together on the fantastic album from THE GREEN MIST (MIST001CD - ROLLING STONE Editor's Hot List Jan 08), JULIEN POULSON, CHARLIE OWEN and TRACY REDHEAD are again making great music, this time as THE CHAPEL OF EASE.

Upon first hearing The Chapel Of Ease's album ‘When Nights Falls' the group's publisher described the music as something "achingly beautiful". ‘When Nights Falls' certainly takes the listener on a dreamlike journey - some place with enough sepia-toned haze to conjure a drifting kind of timelessness.

'When Nights Falls' was recorded in the springtime of Tasmania, in a place where mountain streams and cascading rivulets swirl down from the island's central plateau, etching the landscape and forming the beginning of the mighty Derwent River. The recording location aka St Georges Chapel of Ease, is itself unique; quaint Hansel & Gretel architecture and peculiar local history - one eccentric former owner is even buried in the hills behind, standing straight upright in his grave so he may still look-out over his land!

It's in this setting that Poulson, Owen, Redhead and local drummer MATT MOLLER, and producer ANTHONY ROCHESTER set-up a portable studio. The intent was simple - make some music; beautiful music inspired by the location itself. Poulson and Owen had earlier spoken of getting together to write music for a score based on a Van Diemonian narrative. Charlie Owen's instrumental closing track on the album is a great example of this idea coming to fruition. The track "A Piece of Pearce" is inspired by the infamous convict cannibal Alexander Pearce and must be one the most beautiful, haunting pieces of music ever composed on a Tasmanian theme.

Performed and recorded live over four days the COE used mostly acoustic instruments including Dobro, Banjo, Nylon, 6 and 12 string guitars, Wurlitzer piano, Hammond organ and the occasional electric guitar. A 150-year-old Goldentone Harmonium was even spotted and purchased while en-route to the chapel and has become a highlight of the recording.

This is a collection of songs and instrumentals where highlights are not only Ms Redhead's compelling vocal qualities and emotional directness, but the combination of Poulson's shimmering electric and acoustic guitars with Owen's, multi-instrument, melodic brilliance has shaped an album with its own, inbuilt magic - beautiful dirt music recorded without pretension or fuss. If you really listen closely, on tracks such "House Creaks", you can even hear the sounds of birds twittering outside the chapel's windows and spilling ever-so-slightly into the microphones.

www.myspace.com/thechapelofease

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