Artists

Heligoland

If you've ever fallen in love with somebody who lives in a neighbouring street, a person you see often but hardly know, if at all, then these memories or wistful feelings now have a perfect soundtrack. Welcome to Heligoland - a gorgeous, fragile, sometimes lonely, sometimes triumphant place where the seasons run in autumns and springs.

For the past couple of years, they have been major quiet achievers on the Australian music scene. Their debut album 'Shift These Thoughts' received glowing reviews both here and in Europe including the influential UK magazine Wire.

In collaboration with J. Walker of Machine Translations who recorded and mixed the album while adding piano and keyboards, and fresh from recent performances with the likes of Sarah Blasko and Art of Fighting, Heligoland are sure to come into their own with this, their second album.

'A Street Between Us' sees the band continue their path of lush textures and soaring gentleness, but now, there is a more succinct attitude at work; an assured brevity. It's there on the first single, the mesmeric 'Nearly everything is new' and in the rousing centrepiece of the title track.

The album moves like a train trip through stations and towns all part of the one region but each with their own distinctive monuments. 'Hardly a day passes' could be a tiny village where you might have known someone once while 'Red Pocket' might be a small new city that bears a hint of threat.

Karen Vogt's vocals sparkle and ache with an empowering beauty over a subtle rhythm section and delicate, perfectly placed guitar lines. "A Street Between Us" is music for when the world gets too much and the curtains have to be drawn but its equally music for a bright morning and promising day ahead. It's a rare and brilliant combination.

'A Street Between Us', unsurprisingly, has also found a home in Europe, released in France/Europe in May 2006 by French label Ocean Music. A European tour is scheduled for later in the year.

'A Street Between Us' will see Heligoland travelling far and wide in 2006 to a world where music isn't iPod selections or just background for beery conversations because one thing is clear with this rapidly evolving group - when you're listening to Heligoland you don't need to be doing anything else.

So sit, turn everything else off - because 'A Street Between Us' can run very close to your own front door.

More information

Website: www.heligoland.org
Email: info@heligoland.org