Les Étoiles – To Leave A Mark
Free album (download) Records on Ribs 2009
Listen while reading:
I start with a story: There is a man and he returns to his old home town. He arrives and walks from here to there. He’s walking to mountains he once knew, to his old home and to places which were familiar in the past. While walking to all those different places he forgets about time entirely. The pictures he sees and his thoughts about them are all that matters for him. Suddenly it’s all dark, night has fallen – there are no more pictures, no more thoughts. He is irritated – what happened, was it a dream, is it a dream now? He closes his eyes and there are pictures again, there are memories and there is he, walking all around. He watches himself wandering. It is getting dark again. In this moment he opens his eyes – and he shivers due to the morning dew.
I think the twilight between memories and present is what characterizes the second album of David Fitzpatrick known as Les Étoiles who is a Cardiff based singer-songwriter who went to his home town Bridgnorth, Shropshire last year and wrote an album about this trip. On To Leave A Mark you can spend the time with him the man in the story had lost. What happened, what was he thinking? All those personal questions will be answered if you listen to the wonderful lyrics David is singing with his outstanding emotional, sad and crestfallen but also very clear voice. The words he sings are sometimes like pictures and sometimes intimate reflections.
Compared to the previous album Never To Alight the tracks on To Leave A Mark are even more reduced and introverted. For me this is one of the most private recordings I have ever heard even though Fitzpatrick uses a drum machine, keyboards and an organ along with his guitar. Especially the existence of the drum machine could be crucial for getting a bad feeling about the album – but belief me: it is used in a very offish way and never disturbs the atmosphere. Besides all instruments used it’s still the voice of David Fitzpatrick that is the main attraction. It is the load-bearing pillar in all his tracks.
And now for the best: Les Étoiles releases his music via Records on Ribs – and this means you can get the album for free! Not enough, the stunning Never To Alight is also available there for your listening pleasure. But don’t be too cautious and donate some money if you like it – or even better: buy the limited CD version of Never To Alight and get three bonus tracks along with it. You can download the album here but also make sure to check our Les Étoiles MySpace site and the other artist over at Records on Ribs. For me he is one of the greatest singer-songwriters of our time, so don’t miss him – he will leave a mark.
Wow. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such thoughtful words and posting this. It’s so nice to know that people appreciate what we do, better to know they like it and even better to know it means something to them.
Best,
RoRxxx
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