Comes in a wonderful 4 pages digipak with a 12 pages booklet inside.
Includes unlimited streaming of Border Town Shades
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about
Saline Grace is the new project of Ricardo Hoffmann, who is known as the composer and poet of the German avant-garde band Nobility Of Salt. Supported by his long-term bass player and companion through
life, Ines Pollok, the amazing multi-instrumentalist and singer presents his first solo album, called “Border Town Shades”.
Strongly influenced by the works of Dostoevsky, Kafka and Bukowski, Ricardo Hoffmann has written claustrophobicly profound songs about desperation and the blackest depths of misery, candle-lit rooms full of tragedies, forlorn sinners and deceptive roads which are surrounded by broken telegraph poles, low-hanging wires, sadness and peculiarly grown trees, leading into nowhere and failure. He also tells us about the human’s eternal yearning for deliverance and his hope for God’s doubtful mercy, presenting now with Saline Grace a 17-track-album of incredibly emotional depth.
On “Border Town Shades” his extraordinarily filigree guitar style has been woven into antiques such as piano, organ, banjo and marimba, building up together with Ines Pollok’s powerful bass, admonishing bells and stylishly played drums a remarkable mixture of Americana, psychedelic and folklore of old Eastern Europe which creates an oppressively sinister atmosphere.
Within the centre of this soundscape, in the tradition of Nick Cave, And Also The Trees, Woven Hand or Leonard Cohen stands ominously, full of urgency and often with amazing warmth the marvellously narrative voice of Ricardo Hoffmann, who, like creeping out of the human psyche’s repressed depths, sometimes supported by means of using choirs, knows to celebrate his fateful tales and philosophic poems.
Indeed, with “Border Town Shades” Saline Grace seems to roam a sinister valley on a rain soaked, covered wagon whose wheels pass through that muddy soil, where Nick Cave once laid down
The Carny’s old nag named Sorrow.
lyrics
‘A Good Man’s Shadow’
Down under a cruel
And eastern moon
There is a new tale
From Bordertown
Don’t ask Maggie about her damaged face
She knows her garden’s malignant trees
And fears the boughs they sometimes raise
Maggie deeply loves a good man’s shadow
Who cuts the boughs with saw and crown
Confidently laughing from upon his throne
Don’t ask Maggie about her shrieking voice
She knows her attic’s squawking sparrows
And fears their violently raging noise
Maggie deeply loves a good man’s shadow
Who shoots the birds with gun and crown
Mischievously laughing from upon his throne
Don’t ask Maggie about her strangled son
She knows her fairy tales and comfort
And fears the truths which sometimes dun
Maggie deeply loves a good man’s shadow
Who loves fairy tales with rope and crown
Contentedly laughing from upon his throne
Don’t ask Maggie about that rude car crash
She knows the poor and tragic guy
And fears the day he wants more cash
Maggie deeply loves a good man’s shadow
Who drives his car with bottle and crown
Merrily laughing from upon his throne
Don’t ask Maggie about her anxious mother
She knows mum’s childhood, that old hat
And fears the questions of her beloved brother
Maggie deeply loves a good man’s shadow
Who kindles the hat with words and crown
Sympathetically laughing from upon his throne
Down under a mad
And eastern moon
Silent years have passed
The river on the edge
The good man’s restless bones
Have felt uncomfortable
Clattering and dancing
In a tiny, rotten coffin
Buried in a shallow grave
That swolen hill of soil
So…
Don’t ask Maggie about a dead man’s shadow
She knows the gossip and her inner truths
And fears the mocking children on the meadow
Maggie deeply loves a good man’s shadow
Who haunts in town with sceptre and crown
Terribly laughing from upon his holy throne
credits
from Border Town Shades,
released September 1, 2007
Words and Music written by Ricardo Hoffmann
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