Brücken and Poppy: Another Language
May 23, 2005
‘Songs for the listener who cares about songs’
There(there) are delighted to present the CD album release entitled Another Language. A series of unique and daring 'one voice - one instrument' duets, reimagined by Claudia Brücken (formerly of Propaganda) and composer and musician Andrew Poppy. Both met in the mid 80's when they were signed to Trevor Horn's label ZTT, where they would often cross paths at the famous Sarm Studios. Both had been working on other projects (Claudia formed a band called Onetwo with Paul Humphreys from OMD; they just released their debut album 'Onetwo, instead') and Andrew, who has been hailed as 'one of the most exciting British composers of the 90's', was composing for theatre and opera amongst other projects, like the recent one with Portuguese singer Bernardo Devlin.
Claudia and Andrew had wanted to record together for some time and the idea for an album of covers came to them when they realized that many of their favourite songs were the same including The Associates 'Breakfast', Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' and the traditional folk song 'Wooden Heart' made famous by Elvis Presley.
As Andrew explains: "One of the ideas of the album was to explore the possible differences of the song itself. It's interesting how 'The Star Spangled Banner' is recognizable yet very different in Jimmy Hendrix's version, as is Sid Vicious singing 'My Way'." They were able to record a wide range of songs in many ways due to the fact that Claudia could emotionally connect as much with Schubert as with pop and punk. And with Andrew's piano and guitar arrangements every song sounds like a duet.
All the tracks are unique despite being familiar. On the cover of 'Wooden Heart' Claudia explains: "Elvis probably heard this traditional German folk song while he was stationed in Germany and I have always wanted to record it". On 'Breakfast' she says, "I love the combination of the eerie, daunting lyrics and the beautiful yet hauntingly desperate melody". Produced by Paul Humphreys along with Andrew and Claudia, the 12 songs include torch songs, pop songs, epic songs, religious songs, slow songs but all of them sensational songs. Another Language is an homage to them all.
