Search - Skeletons :: Smile

Nostalgia 77 aka Benedic Lamden is a musician, producer and engineer. He has produced a string of LP's as Nostalgia 77 for Tru Thoughts; he also produces all the releases for his own label, Impossible Ark, including this one. Skeletons is a made up band. I kid you not - it doesn't exist. These musicians never stood in the studio together, they just passed through my house or left some scraps of sound behind after sessions we were working on (Alice Russell, Riaan Vosloo, and Mulatu Astatke). This record is like a guy, pieced together and ready for the bonfire." "Some of the music here started life as commissions for a library music company, pastiches and forgeries paid for by the current vogue for a certain style of African jazz. Once I'd done a few though I couldn't stop, it was my default preoccupation, something for me once I'd finished working on other people's albums. It was relaxation, something that didn't matter whether it worked or not. The whole LP was made like that, done in the time between recording jobs. "To me the whole thing has been a self indulgent forgery, an act of mindless fun. If it sounds good then it's because I just enjoyed the music and enjoyed myself." Benedic Lamdin (Nostalgia 77) is making a name for himself as one of the most talented producers of modern jazz music around, both as a solo artist and with his Nostalgia 77 Octet. He is also brainchild behind Impossible Ark Records, along with partner and bassist Riaan Vosloo. The Skeletons track, "Positive Force", which appears on this album, was given an early airing on `Impossible Ark: A Compilation' last year, to immense acclaim and support from tastemakers including Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio 1), Monk One (Wax Poetics), Jeremy Sole (KCRW), and Ashley Beedle (X-Press 2/Ministry Of Sound Radio/RBMA).