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Long Version

 

The Whispering Sea „Naupathia“

 

‘It’s hard to tell a joke to a committed misanthrope’

Death By Spaeti

 

The Whispering Sea came into existence in July 2010. Esteemed Berlin based musicians Robert Klausch (Scream Silence) and Rob DeVille (Enemy I) had already embarked on the early throes of a potential musical endeavour when they were joined on their quest by a prodigious and prolific wordsmith from England, Anthony J Brown. During the course of a splendid evening of summer socialising, idle topics of discussion prompted two Brown-penned lyrics to be presented the very next day, ‘The Horse-Painter’ and ‘Obsessive Compulsive’. The Berlin-Sheffield union thus established, The Whispering Sea was in full flow.

 

‘You make me nostalgic for my prison years

The food was better and the nights held less fear’

Fear Times Two

 

This set the subsequent working method with Anthony providing completed texts for the pair, often based around slithers of the conversations held during his frequent visits to Berlin. Fortuity and fate has decreed that Klausch and DeVille have composed their  accompanying melodic soundscapes with barely a syllable having been altered. With musical and lyrical reference points from the likes of The Swans, Fleetwood Mac, Philip Larkin, Bon Iver, Anathema, Bill Fay, My Bloody Valentine, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Leonard Cohen, Paul Williams, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Lee Hazlewood, John Cooper Clarke and Mazzy Star, The Whispering Sea’s songs are captivating, eclectic and ultimately doused in heartfelt truth.

 

‘Your fingers on the strings but you can’t make a sound

Your hands are on the keys but you only hear your heart pound’

Hello Maestro

 

Naupathia, their proposed (and fully recorded) 10 song debut album features a compelling collection of finely helmed characters akin to the cast of a poignant social realist film including a self-loathing Lothario, an indolent equivocator, poisoned romantics, an embittered nihilist, small town soul mate pariahs, a tortured failed artist, parting star-crossed lovers, a devotionally diffident online obsessive and the occasional eternal optimist.

 

‘Me and my mind-twin floating above

Laughing and knowing that one is enough’

Me And My Mind-Twin

 

Proffering lyrics that are both heartbreaking and bleakly hilarious, often in the same verse, and a momentous musical palette that is at turns, melancholic, majestic, introspective and shamelessly jubilant Naupathia displays a complex simplicity which is beguiling and constantly rewarding upon repeated listens. It can provide the soundtrack to a Saturday night with a mix of rousing toe-tappers, for the joyous speculation at the start of the evening, ruminative refrains regarding the labyrinthine affairs of the heart that inevitably cast a long shadow and finally, when events have yet again failed to live up to expectations, mournful laments to chronicle the plight of the emotionally crestfallen.

 

‘The street lamps light our tear-tracks as the taxi speeds through the night

And so we sing along in our heads, one last time’

Final Anthem

 

TWS are also now a compelling live proposition having swelled to a six piece for performance purposes having recruited three adept, committed, song-serving musicians from Tunisia, Germany and Russia. Quite the cosmopolitan blend, as the subsequent hypnotic live concerts attest.

 

‘Your self obsession’s sickening, the way that you believe

Your laughter’s my best medicine, when it’s still Paroxetine’

Obsessive Compulsive

 

(Anthony J. Brown)

 

Line-up:

Robert Klausch (Acoustic Gitarre, Vocals)

Rob De Ville (Drums, Vocals)

Anthony J. Brown (Lyrics, Vocals, Spoken Words)

Sophia Valentina (Piano, Vocals)

René Gödde (E-Gitarre)

Arthur Antagonist (Bass)

Montassar Alibi (Acoustic Gitarre, Gesang)

Mattias Bååth (Flute, Percussion)

Johanna Kellerbauer (Violine, Mandoline)

 

Web:

www.thewhisperingsea.com

www.facebook.com/thewhisperingsea