FENDAHLENE’S ‘BRILLIANT SUN’ SEALS HAT-TRICK OF STUNNERS
FENDAHLENE – Aussie expats Ashley Hurst (bass) and Paul Whiteley (guitar/vocals) – have just released ‘Brilliant Sun,’ the last in a series of three records.
“Unofficially they from a triptych of singles,” said Hurst. “They follow an arc from uncertainty and despair to acceptance and perspective, I guess the full gamut of those crazy emotions we all felt during the COVID lockdowns. ‘Brilliant Sun’ has both other songs as B sides – it’s a three-song stacked single.”
Recorded at London’s Urchin Studios, the latest single saw the duo joined by Matt Ingram on drums and Dan Cox behind the desk, both of whose credits include Laura Marling, Florence and the Machine, and Tom Odell, among many others. Mastering was by Fabien Tormin at Hamburg’s, Plaetin Mastering.
“Brilliant Sun is a realisation that just maybe, with a positive mindset, we really could find ‘better’ out of the worst of times,” adds Hurst.
“We don’t have to accept our situation, or our station in life, and by taking a new approach driven by dreams of better, we just might be able to turn things around. We really can break free if we allow ourselves to see light at the end of the tunnel.
“But we must be relentless in this task, channelling into the energy that was until then fuelling our feelings of despair. Although written during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the lockdowns intensified already poor life situations, the themes of Brilliant Sun are universal, equally viable for similarly desperate personal, communal, and global situations.”
The first song in the series, ‘The Big Reveal,’ was released in May. Written towards the end of the final Covid-19 lockdown, after the misplaced promise and disastrous handling of the first two lockdowns, the song asks the big question in a blunt, impassioned manner: what happens now? At once stark, intense, and despondent, ‘The Big Reveal’ outlines that feeling of powerlessness experienced during those difficult times.
“‘Break Our Fall,’ released in June is a lively, slightly despondent appeal for help, when it feels like you’re stuck in the eye of a hurricane with everything going crazy all around, you’ll do anything you can to keep grounded, centred and sane, and for things to feel back in control,” Hurst explained.
“And yet, as powerless as one feels at such times, at the very centre of the hurricane, in the eye of the storm in the here and now, everything is all right. When you put your mind to it, finding personal peace when chaos abounds is the ideal strategy for facing every day, empowering you to deal with misfortune, and the idiots, zealots and miscreants seeking to benefit from it.”
‘Brilliant Sun’ marks a notable evolution in the Fendahlene sound. Striving to create a dream state atmosphere to inspire listeners to take that deep breath, clear the mind and find cause for hope, the song leans heavily on space rock and neo-psychedelia influences, as lead vocals blend with searing, layered backing harmonies creating a ‘wall of sound’ effect, often attempted, infrequently achieved.
FENDAHLENE online: https://www.fendahlene.com
