MARK TURNER holds on tight for a mesmerising display of Neath-born ragtime virtuosity
Of The Sun by Trupa Trupa
ALAN MORRISON introduces a UK poet whose despised daytime occupation provides the subject for his writing
MARK TURNER wallows in the virtuosity of Swansea Jazz Festival openers, Simon Spillett and Pete Long
PAUL DONOVAN recommends three new books that explore the human relationship with nature
Doomed adolescents, when the missing person is you, classic whodunnit, and an anti-capitalist eco-thriller
WILL STONE takes a ticket to indie disco heaven, but misses the rarely performed tunes
Trupa Trupa
Of The Sun
(Glitterbeat Records)
TRUPA Trupa (“a corpse’s troupe”) hail from Gdansk in Poland, historically part of the powerful Hanseatic League and birthplace of that philosopher of pessimism Arthur Schopenhauer, iconic actor Klaus Kinsky and the calamitous Solidarnosc.
With an appropriate nod to Schopenhauer, frontman and poet Grzegorz Kwiatkowski has recently described Trupa Trupa’s music — somewhat inspired by Werner Hertzog’s film Fitzcarraldo and Miguel Cervantes’s Don Quixote — as a “meditative, pessimistic thing.”
Firm friends, the band are wedded to collective and democratic decision-making, reflected in their sophisticated and exploratory rock arrangements, delivered with superb musicianship.
Overlapping voices, beautiful guitar cadences and a spellbinding syncopation of bass guitar and drums captivate with their thoughtful innovation.
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