Frozen By Sight - Paul Smith & Peter Brewis

The new record from Paul Smith is available to pre-order and, naturally, that's what I've done. It won't be available until November but, when you pre-order, you can download three tracks: 'Barcelona (At Eye Level)', 'Mount Wellington Rises' and 'Trevone' which all soon good. According to Paul, each song is about a place or a journey he's made with his words set to strings by Peter Brewis from Field Music.

You can pre-oder (and download the songs) from the new website. Here's what the 'Frozen By Sight' website says:


Frozen by Sight is the new album from Paul Smith (Maximo Park) and Peter Brewis (Field Music). Drawing inspiration from disparate musical and poetic sources the two Mercury Prize nominees have come together in a playful departure from their respective bands, with Peter Brewis' chamber-band arrangements built up around text from Paul Smith's travel writing, creating a a restrained yet richly descriptive song suite.

First performed at the inaugural Festival of the North East in spring 2013, Smith and Brewis began work in early 2014 recording the album at the Field Music studio in Sunderland with David Brewis, Peter's brother, acting as co-producer. Integral to the sound of the record are the distinctive performances of the band: David's dynamic push and pull on the drums, John Pope's wandering, melodic bass playing, the precision and drama of Ed Cross' string quartet, and the sonorous palette of Andrew Lowther's tuned percussion. Brewis reinforces the arrangements with smatterings of piano while Smith features as a highly individual singer/guitar player.