Peace v War new album by Karel Fialka

Peace v War is the brand new album from Electro pop pioneer Karel Fialka. His Mother is from the Highlands, with Karel attending school in the Highlands before his travels into Europe. He returned to Scotland in the in mid 90s to bring up his family so they could be part of a community.

His then band Sgian Dubh played a hippy mix of sequences and home made instruments..good band, good fun. He also lectured at NorthHighlandCollege for ten years.

Recorded with the Racecar project (aka Kevin McGowan and Richard Rogers) in Gozo, the album is only available as a 12" vinyl LP or by download and features the iconic cover artwork of Grammy Design Award nominee Mike Ross.

Recording in a time of huge world events including the Ebola outbreak, the annexation of Crimea, and the disappearance of Air Malaysia MH370. DAESH had not even been heard of let alone being as now a de facto military force of potentially global proportions and the migrants now flooding Europe were just a trickle.

 

A musically startling, lyrically angry yet eternally hopeful commentary on our modern world, the album deals with the major themes of our time…war, hunger, inequality, political chicanery, media manipulation - passionately whilst never preachy.

 

His first taste of success was with “Armband” b/w “Ghosts, The Subway Strummer”, released on the indie Red Shift label in 1979 and played by John Peel, it had underground success in Europe. Charlie Gillett liked what Karel was doing and then signed him to Oval Records for a short time before Karel moved to the Blueprint label where he recorded and released “Still Life”, his first album which gained excellent reviews. The single “The Eyes Have It” was taken from “Still Life” and had chart success, but Blueprint folded suddenly just as the album was being distributed.

 

His self-recorded song, “Hey Matthew” was heard by Miles Copeland who signed Karel to IRS Records and the single became a UK Top 5 hit in 1987 and also charted in Europe. In the following years other albums under Karel’s name include a deconstruction of songs by The Doors called “Morrison Café” and also “Subterranean”, an album of songs by Bob Dylan which were treated in the same way. These mostly went to friends and fans and have become collectors’ items.

 

2009 saw the release of “Film Noir”, a limited edition album of 500 signed and numbered copies on a black CD. Featured guest artists include Tilda Swinton and Paul Roberts (Sniff  n the Tears). Karel has worked with and written for a wide range of artists and fellow travellers  including Nick Magnus, Jona Lewi, Paul Roberts, Colin Blunstone, Martin Stephenson, Cliff Richard etc as well as taking production duties for various projects.

Karel still performs live regularly.

 

Famed for his eighties recordings on Charlie Gillett's Oval Records and, later, Miles Copeland's influential IRS imprint, with hits such as 'The Eyes Have It' and 'Hey Matthew', singer-songwriter Karel Fialka is back with his most striking work yet on “Peace v War”.

 

www.karelfialka.com

 

February 24, 2016 10:26am ET by Manilla PR Ltd.   Comments (0)

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