Blackfield: Blackfield 2004 + Blackfield II 2007

 

Blackfield is a collaborative music project by the English musician and founder of Porcupine

Tree, Steven Wilson, and Israeli rock singer Aviv Geffen. Together, six albums have been released under the moniker. After years of mutual admiration, the pair met to discuss a set of concert appearances in 2000 and, further drawn together by their similar interests in the classic rock albums of the '60s and '70s, wound up composing their first song under the Blackfield moniker.
                             

It would be another year before they reconvened in a Tel Aviv studio, and their plans to cut an EP soon ballooned into an 18-month period of sporadic writing and recording sessions, finally capped off, after

further delays, by the release of Blackfield's eponymous debut by Koch Records in early 2005. The first two records, Blackfield and Blackfield II, saw Geffen and Wilson working together as equal partners, while the third and fourth, Welcome to my DNA and Blackfield IV, saw Geffen take on a leading role, writing all but one track across both albums and providing a significantly increased share of lead vocals.
                           

Wilson's other commitments began to take precedence, and more of the songwriting duties were handed

over to Geffen, as reflected in the title of the third album, Welcome to My DNA, released in 2011. With Wilson's decision to focus on his solo career, his input was reduced to that of contributor rather than full collaborator for the band's fourth album, Blackfield IV.
                  

Released in August 2013, the album -- which featured vocal contributions from ex-Mercury Rev

frontman Jonathan Donahue and Brett Anderson of Suede -- more closely resembled Geffen's poppy solo output, but with its epic string arrangements, it never entirely lost sight of the '60s psychedelia that had so influenced Wilson's progressive work. Wilson was present for Blackfield's 2014 European tour, but he quit the project after the tour's conclusion.
                   

However, in 2015 it was announced that Geffen and Wilson -- along with producer Alan Parsons --

were working on material for Blackfield V. Initially intended for a December release the following year, it actually appeared in January 2017. A sixth record, For the Music, was released on 4 December 2020, with Geffen again taking a leading role.
    

Band members are drummer Tomer Z, bassist Seffy Efrati, and keyboardist Eran Mitelman. Former

band members include Chris Maitland (replaced by Tomer Z, 2004) and Daniel Salomon (replaced by Eran Mitelman, 2007)
                

BLACKFIELD - BLACKFIELD 2004

                     

Their first album as a duo, recording under the name Blackfield, does betray their mutual love of 1960s

and 1970s classic rock, but it also contains more than a hint of an '80s influence the first line of the first song goes "Here's a song from an open mind." Everything else is no big surprise: scars are mentioned more than once, as are nightmares, pain, death and sorrow. But Blackfield's sound is anything but morose.
    

The music isn't exactly chipper, but it's always rich and pretty, and at times (as on the album-ending

"Hello") it's downright grandiose. There are also quite a few sonic surprises thrown into the mix, such as the almost subliminal found-sound experimentation on "Lullaby" and the sudden incursion of Middle Eastern reeds and a drum'n'bass breakbeat in the middle of the otherwise sweet and dreamy "Scars." Recommended.
                 

Blackfield – Blackfield
Label:Snapper Music – SMACD880, ROC-CD-9685
Format:    CD, Album
Country: UK
Released: 2004
Genre: Rock
Style: Pop Rock, Art Rock

TRACKS

                       

01. Open Mind    3:49
02. Blackfield    4:06
03. Glow    4:00
04. Scars   3:57
Performer [Music] – The Mistakes
05. Lullaby    3:29
06. Pain    3:47
07. Summer    4:12
08. Cloudy Now    3:34
09. The Hole In Me    2:47
10. Hello    3:09

BONUS DISC        

              

  
01. Perfect World    3:53
02. Where Is My Love?    3:01
03. Cloudy Now (Live)   3:44
Bass Guitar – Seffy Efrati
Drums, Backing Vocals – Chris Maitland
Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Daniel Salomon
Vocals, Guitar – Aviv Geffen, Steven Wilson

LINE - UP

Drums – Chris Maitland (tracks: 1-2, 1-9, 1-10), Gavin Harrison (tracks: 1-1, 1-6, 2-1), Jeremy Kaplan (tracks: 1-3, 1-7)
Strings – The Illusion Quartet (tracks: 1-1, 1-5, 1-7, 1-10)
Written-By – Aviv Geffen (tracks: 1-1, 1-3, 1-4, 1-6 to 1-10 to 2-3), Steven Wilson (tracks: 1-1 to 1-5, 1-7, 1-8, 1-10, 2-1, 2-3)

NOTES

                

European edition comes in a 3-panel Digipak with Bonus CD.
Recorded at various times between 2001-2003.
Studios: ZaZa - Tel Aviv, Israel; Hamon - Tel Aviv, Israel; New Rising - Colchester, UK; No Man's Land - Hemel Hempstead, UK.
Final mixes at No Man's Land, UK, September 2003.

Flac Size: 304 MB

BLACKFIELD - BLACKFIELD II 2007

                

The sophomore release for this melodic duo (actually a five-piece band, but the leads are Steven Wilson

and Aviv Geffen) based to some degree on the progressive bent of Porcupine Tree covers much of the same ground as their debut. The sound is still firmly in the realm of progressive rock, with hints of Radiohead and Oasis.
                   

Unlike Blackfield's previous album which was recorded off and on over a two-year span, this one was recorded in one short stretch, and shows somewhat more consistency in tone as a result. The album-

opening "Once" has a particularly Radiohead-like vibe and a bit of heaviness, but the development of the album works into other veins as well, with large string movements, light piano accompaniment, and a generally melodic guitar approach. Somewhat '80s-influenced sounds come and go slightly, a touch of Pink Floyd comes through now and then (particularly on "Christenings"), and a general melancholy hangs over the album as a whole.
            

Aviv Geffen has taken a larger role in lead vocals here with good effect (particularly in a handful of

tracks he had composed, eventually translated from Hebrew). The overall effect is a fine one -- Blackfield II has more of what fans of the duo will enjoy and makes a fair introduction for newcomers, although debut album would serve them better as a first listen. The short nature of Blackfield II (coming in around 42 minutes) will almost certainly have some of the fans wishing for more.
               

Blackfield – Blackfield II
Label:We Put Out Records – 100360, Atlantic – 0 75678 9999 6
Format:CD, Album, Digipak
Country:USA & Canada
Released:Mar 6, 2007
Genre:Rock
Style:Alternative Rock, Prog Rock, Art Rock

TRACKS

                  

01. Once    4:03
02. 1,000 People   3:54
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Harel Ben-Ami
French Horn – Itamar Leshem
Keyboards [Additional], Programmed By – Ofer Meiri
03. Miss U    4:13
04. Christenings   4:37
Drums – Gavin Harrison
Electric Piano, Synthesizer [Stylophone] – Richard Barbieri
05. This Killer    4:06
06. Epidemic   4:59
Backing Vocals – Daniella Pick
07. My Gift Of Silence   4:05
Electric Piano – Eran Mitelman
08. Some Day    4:22
09. Where Is My Love?    2:59
10. End Of The World    5:13

LINE - UP

Bass Guitar – Seffy Efrati
Drums, Percussion – Tomer Z
Guitar, Keyboards [Additional], Vocals – Steven Wilson
Keyboards, Guitar [Additional], Vocals – Aviv Geffen
Lead Vocals – Aviv Geffen (tracks: 3, 6, 9, 10), Steven Wilson (tracks: 1, 2, 4 to 10)
Lyrics By – Steven Wilson (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7)
Piano – Daniel Salomon
Strings – The Downtown Session Orchestra
Music By – Steven Wilson (tracks: 1, 4, 7)
Music By, Lyrics By – Aviv Geffen (tracks: 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 to 10)

Flac Size: 283 MB