v/a: Transmarine v/a: Transmarine Radio Khartoum is pleased to announce the second installment of 18 Frames Per Second, our series of imaginary soundtracks. Dreams of faraway ports, the promise of new adventures, farewells to old lives - sometimes reluctantly, sometimes joyfully, but always the wind in our hair and taste of salt in the air. The soundtrack for our voyage comprises an exclusive collection of recordings from Le Mans, Club Foot Orchestra, Louis Philippe, Christine, and Quigley. Simple, elegant, extremely moody but highly romantic, we think it's downright gorgeous.
Le Mans set the scene with "Dos Marinos en la Orilla", a spartan theme for the sun and brine bleached daydreams of weary sailors, penned but never released by their Elefant labelmates, Family. Sunbaked melancholia in the vein of their Saudade album. A beautiful lyric. A divine accent.
Beloved to San Francisco audiences for their scores for silent films (Sherlock Jr., Metropolis, and Pandora's Box, among others) and for their music for CBS's "The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat", Club Foot Orchestra answer the plaintive call of Beth Custer's clarinet with a lush, haunted orchestration, which leads to the open seas and romantic destinations in the eastern part of our imaginations.
Destination unknown: "Partir" is a waltz from the deck of the boat, as our past shrinks towards the horizon. The angelic voice belongs to Louis Philippe, who originally wrote the song as an experiment for Radio Khartoum's shtetl project. Shtetl remains unrealized, but we were pleased find that this song of departures works perfectly here.
Man about Khartoum and frequent Watoo Watoo contributor, Didier Duclos alias Christine is back, serenading us this time with lovely piece of jazz guitar melancholia: "Bejá". A good-bye kiss. Let the boat wait.
Quigley (aka At Swim Two Birds, and the voice of The Montgolfier Brothers) has the last word with "Five Finger Strand", a gentle yet monumental instrumental which takes its inspiration from a beautiful location on the coast Ireland which was used to conceal a dark and destructive secret in the 1970s...
For further information about the artists or label, interviews, etc., please contact Radio Khartoum.