Blackfield - Steven Wilson

Steven Wilson @StevenWilsonHQ
Please note that this will be Blackfield's only date in the USA. This show will be Steven Wilson's final performance with the band.

Any other local SH forum members going to this concert on May 1st in NYC?

 

Shameless bump. Looks like I could be in the front row!

 

Would love to go but a bit of a distance from my house in sunny England!

Enjoy

Gary

 

Living in America in any city that isn't NYC or LA is really, really frustrating.

Admittedly I haven't gotten into the newer Blackfield stuff that had less and less SW involvement, but those first two albums were incredible.

 

Resurrecting this thread because the Blackfield Facebook page is reporting that Aviv Geffen is in a studio in London right now recording new Blackfield material with not only Steven Wilson but Alan Parsons too!
And now there's speculation that Geffen might make an appearance at Wilson's Royal Albert Hall gigs next month...

 

Bumping for very exciting info on Blackfield V - from the official FB page:

"BLACKFIELD V will be released on 18th November by Kscope, and sees a return to the full partnership that made the first two albums such firm favourites with fans. Written and recorded over a period of 18 months in both Israel and England, Blackfield V contains 13 linked songs that form a flowing 45 minute ocean themed song cycle. With the pair expertly handling vocals, guitars, and keyboards, Tomer Z from the Blackfield band on drums, and string arrangements performed by the London Session Orchestra, the album is a powerful journey through catchy melodies, lush arrangements, and stunning production. Legendary producer / engineer Alan Parsons produced three of the album’s key tracks.

Both musicians consider Blackfield V to be their best collaboration to date. The album will be released by Kscope as a Digipack CD with a 16 page booklet, CD/Blu Ray with high resolution audio, and double vinyl."

I did not see this coming at all with regards to the "full partnership". It seemed like Steven had moved on for the most part. I made the trek to NYC in 2014 to see their last show with SW. I'd be shocked if he doesn't do more live shows now since he's got to be more invested in these songs than the last two records. While I like the last two, it's no secret the songs Wilson was involved with were the standout tracks.

 

Yes that full partnership news is superb! I love Blackfield anyway, but this is great to hear. Some live dates would be the icing on the cake.

 

Really excited about this record. I always liked that it "forced" Wilson into more concise writing and song structures, different from his other work.

 

Yep, the HCE album and tour must have really scratched an itch for him such that he was ready to return to this format and partnership. Given that this sounds like a suite, though, I wonder if this will be Blackfield edging toward a bit more SW/PT-like territory? Either way, I'm super excited by this news!

 

SW and Aviv work incredibly together. Very very excited for this.

 

+1.

 

Maybe. I'm hoping he keeps Blackfield kind of a distinct thing...everything SW does has his stamp on it, of course, but I liked it as his outlet for more straightforward stuff. It might just be a dozen songs that are thematically linked, rather than a 'suite' in the super proggy sense.

 

Fantastic news and no doubt there will be a 5.1 version (he says with fingers crossed)

 

Blackfield always seemed to follow suit from some of the song structures we saw on Stupid Dream and Lightbulb Sun, giving SW an outlet for for that sound once he moved PT into a more metallic phase. I too am surprised to hear of this return to a full collaboration and welcome it wholeheartedly. Seems he has some songs in him that need to be heard.

 

I really felt Blackfield IV got less love than it deserved. It had a great vibe to it, very reminiscent of the first record, as far as I was concerned.

Still, it's great news to see Geffen and Wilson back in the saddle for V.

 

I agree. I liked the guest vocalists as well. "X-Ray" caused me to finally pay attention to the latest 3 Anathema albums and they are just spectacular. "Firefly" is a great track and I think it's better off for Aviv not singing that one.

 

Count me as a fan of IV as well. I had gotten over SW's minimal involvement with respect to DNA and came to appreciate that the overall Blackfield sound had as much to do with Aviv Geffen as it did SW.

Geffen's voice is best taken in slightly smaller doses and the balance achieved on IV by using an eclectic mix of guest vocalists (and a terrific SW vocal on Jupiter) makes it a much stronger album than DNA.

 

I'm quite sad to say that I never even gave IV a chance until I found it bundled with Welcome to my DNA relatively recently. I paid far too much attention to the reviews and missed out on good music as a result. There's a lesson for the ages.

 

I will throw onto the pile of love for IV. If anything, it does make you realize just how much Aviv brings to the table (TONS).

X-Ray, The Only Fool Is Me, both standouts to me.

 

From Amazon UK

 

Kscope put up a short teaser for the new album on youtube....the quality of the audio is not very good (though obviously the release will sound a helluva lot better) the song clips sound very promising.

 

Great trailer, thanks for posting!

I am rather hopeful that V will approach the greatness of II. The sound snippets, as brief as they are, go far to sustain that hope.

 

I'll be interested to hear this, though I never much got into what I heard of Blackfield outside of the first album.

 

If you like the first album, you really should give II a try. If my recollection is correct, the first album was put together over a period of time and in my opinion lacks some cohesion from an album standpoint. This is corrected by the time II rolled around.

 

Seems like I have heard a few tracks from it. "Where Is My Love" is terrible.

I haven't listened to the whole thing though. It is on Spotify, so I may give it a whack.

Love "Scars" and the title song from Blackfield the first.