Caligula’s Horse, a band at the forefront of Australia’s progressive rock scene, have announced the release of their forthcoming fourth studio album, ‘In Contact’, for release on September 15th, 2017 via Inside Out Music.
As with the band’s acclaimed album ‘Bloom’ before it, ‘In Contact’ sees vocalist Jim Grey and lead guitarist Sam Vallen collaborating closely on the music and lyrics. Vallen comments: “In our creative process every idea is scrutinized, deconstructed, and rebuilt in a way that one of us, alone, could never achieve. We’re one another’s harshest critic, but fortunately we’ve done this for long enough now that our inspiration draws us in a similar direction – we can finish each other’s musical sentences, so to speak. And we’re lucky that’s the case, since In Contact proved to be a much more ambitious undertaking than anything we’d conceived of in the past.”
Vocalist Jim Grey adds: “In Contact has been an enormous proposition – the stories told in this album feel deeply personal, and we’ve never been more excited to share a new work with the world. The sounds on this album are dark and adventurous – but without losing the bittersweet and joyful sounds we developed in writing Bloom.”
As with the band’s second album ‘The Tide, the Thief & River’s End’, the band decided to hang a concept around the entire record, taking it in a direction that would end up being the opposite of its predecessor. “We decided to create a concept album, but one that came from a more personal place: one that would facilitate our creative needs wherever the journey took us” Vallen continues. “The broader concept is based around the nature of art – of what it is that sparks creativity and inspiration, a celebration of what connects us as human beings, the shared space across our many differences.”
Taking in four separate chapters, each one is dedicated to an individual and their own personal journey and how they express themselves through art. “Each of these artists are reaching for something more in their lives, and while disconnected entirely from one another, they are united by that reach: for a better life, but also for something intangible.”
Written between late 2016 and May 2017, the album went through a rapid production/mixing/mastering process encompassing five weeks between May and June. The music felt fresh and the ideas were captured at the peak of their vitality. The music on ‘In Contact’ stretched all of the bands abilities, from the frantic speed and complexity of ‘Will’s Song (Let the Colours Run)’ to the immense scope and variety of the 16-minute album closer, ‘Graves’. This is Caligula’s Horse at their most ambitious and progressive.
The full track-listing is as follows:
1.Dream the Dead
2. Will’s Song (Let the Colours Run)
3. The Hands are the Hardest
4. Love Conquers All
5. Songs for No One
6. Capulet
7. Fill My Heart
8. Inertia and the Weapon of the Wall
9. The Cannon’s Mouth
10. Graves
You can find the full list of tour dates below:
19th June – Le Rex, Toulouse, France w/ Pain of Salvation
20th June – Les Docks, Lausanne, Switzerland w/ Opeth
21st June – Z7, Pratteln, Switzerland w/ Opeth
22nd June – Substage, Karlsruhe, Germany w/ Pain of Salvation
23rd June – Doornroosje, Nijmegen, Netherlands w/ Anathema
24th June – Midsummer Prog Festival, Valkenburg, Netherlands
25th June – The Talking Heads, Southampton, UK
28th June – The Black Heart, London, UK
30th June – Be Prog! My Friend Festival, Barcelona, Spain
Caligula’s Horse are:
Jim Grey – lead vocals
Sam Vallen – lead guitar
Adrian Goleby – guitar
Dave Couper – bass & vocals
Josh Griffin – drums
