The Family Tree: The Leaves Radical Face

• 1 Secrets (Cellar Door) 04:25
• 2 Rivers in the Dust 05:45
• 3 Everything Costs 03:41
• 4 Midnight 03:09
• 5 The Ship in Port 03:43
• 6 Photograph 02:24
• 7 Third Family Portrait 03:44
• 8 The Road to Nowhere 04:46
• 9 Old Gemini 04:15
• 10 Bad Blood 04:50
• Total Runtime 40:42

Info for The Family Tree: The Leaves

Ben Cooper, besser bekannt unter seinem Künstlernamen Radical Face, veröffentlichte im März 2016 das finale Album seines „The Family Tree“-Triptychons.

Basierend auf den ersten beiden Alben „The Family Tree: The Roots“ und „The Family Tree: The Branches“, entstand mit „The Family Tree: The Leaves“ ein finaler Musik-Mythos. Die Reihe basiert auf der Familiengeschichte der Northcotes, die im 19. Jahrhundert lebten und um die sich fantastische Geschichten ranken. Dabei steht vor allem eins im Vordergrund: Magie — und das hört man auch. Sphärische Klänge gepaart mit handgemachter Musik und tiefgründigen Texten vereinen sich zu einem Reigen, der zum Träumen und Nachdenken anregt. Ben versteht sich hervorragend darauf, den Hörer in zauberhafte Welten zu versetzen. Auf dem neuen Album findet die Sage um die Northcotes nun ihr Ende. Besonders bemerkenswert: Ben spielt auf seinem Album fast alle Instrumente selbst und untermalt sein Epos mit orchestralen Elementen.

„Mit besten Preamps und Mikrofonen aufgenommen findet diese opernhafte Trilogie auch klanglich ihre Entsprechung. Das krönende Finale eines Meisterwerks.“ (Audio)

„Progressiver Americana-Rock, der mit jedem Hören neue Facetten offenbart.“ (Good Times)

Ben Cooper
is a teller of stories, as seen with the fanciful album trilogy he launched in 2011, The Family Tree: The Roots, a chronicle revolving around a fictitious 19th-century family (the Northcotes) whose protagonists, unwittingly or not, chart a course for future generations. The second installment of the series, The Family Tree: The Branches, was released in 2013. The project embodies Radical Face’s fascination with big story arcs, history and genealogy — the characters in his sometimes-dark tales are drawn from research, personal experience and his own imagination.

Cooper’s own story could be the stuff of legend itself. As a teenager in Jacksonville, Fla., he had his heart set on being a professional skateboarder, but a serious back injury scotched that. He had played in rock bands but largely disdained band politics, so, inspired by books such as “East of Eden,” “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and the works of authors such as Cormac McCarthy, he embarked on writing a novel. He lost his entire manuscript in a computer crash. “So I decided to try it in record form,” he says. Radical Face’s penchant for otherworldly narratives was revealed on his 2007 release Ghost, a concept album based on the notion that houses retain memories of what transpired inside them. The song “Welcome Home” from Ghost, has garnered over 22 million YouTube views, mostly in part to a worldwide Nikon commercial (ex North America). Further television support has come from shows like Private Practice, Skins, Eddie Izzard, Weeds, as well as his late night national TV debut on Last Call With Carson Daly.

This album contains no booklet.