We are thrilled to announce that Gruff Rhys will release Babelsberg – his fifth album and first via Rough Trade since 2007’s classic Candylion – on 8th June 2018.
Watch Gruff being a model recycler in the video for the album’s stunning opening track ‘Frontier Man’ below. Gruff explains: “It was shot in Cardiff, Wales and the Cardiff of the imagination. Watch me as I go in search of a bin through the deepest recesses, and frozen tundra of my mind. Yes, you heard right.”
Babelsberg features orchestral scores by Swansea-based composer Stephen McNeff and the incredible work of the 72 piece BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The result is Gruff’s best record to date: a ten song gazetteer of modern times, each track set to timeless, unforgettable melodies.
Of Babelsberg, Gruff says: “I’d made a note of the name after driving past a sign when I was on tour in 2014. Cut to a few years later and the studio where I recorded the album was being knocked down just a week after I finished to make way for a ‘luxury’ apartment development. I was looking for a name that evoked the Tower of Babel – people building towers to reach an idea of heaven (but maybe creating a kind of hell – I’m an atheist by the way!) In any case I had written Babelsberg down and when I listened to the songs together, it finally made sense why I’d done that.”
Babelsberg Tracklisting:
1. Frontier Man
2. The Club
3. Oh Dear!
4. Limited Edition Hearts
5. Take That Call
6. Drones in the City
7. Negative Vibes
8. Same Old Song
9. Architecture of Amnesia
10. Selfies in the Sunset
