Berardi /Foran/Karlen: Hope In My Pocket

From the media release

BFKNationally and internationally acclaimed Australian musicians Kristin Berardi (vocals), Sean Foran (piano) and Rafael Karlen (saxophone) have officially combined their love for music and passion for Australian history into the creation of their debut album Hope in My Pocket, out Oct 2nd through Planet / Pinnacles Music

 

Pianist Sean Foran explains: “The main thing we really wanted to be sure of was that we could sensitively address the themes that we found in the history of the ANZACS. Given that the material we wanted to write was songs we thought the best way to gather material for this was to look at letters”.

Encouraged to try to musically retell this piece of history to modern Australia, we made a number of emotionally draining yet inspirational trips to the QLD State archives and QLD State Library. The amount of letters that we looked through over a few days was enormous. Letters from soldiers back to their families, from families to soldiers, from families to the government, from medical personnel, from friends. Our initial concept was to be really wide in our scope but the further we progressed, and the more we looked at all the letters, we realized that a clear list of themes that we felt we needed to explore in the music, were emerging, and that in order to respect the letters, we needed to interpret them not literally, but thematically.

These themes were hope, fear, separation, loss, love, and the conditions of war. We also wanted each song to look at an experience and / or emotion.”

The intensely intimate, textural and emotional sound of Berardi/Foran/Karlen was recorded live before the trio had played any of the material at a performance, complementing the rawness and reality of the overarching song themes. Musically, the beautiful vocal melodies and saxophone are such a striking combination that at times, almost blur into one; while the absence of drums and bass gives the tracks a great deal of space and a sense of silence to enhance the content.

The trio embark on a national tour of Australia from Sept – Dec, 2015 with performances around the country at clubs and festivals including the Wangaratta Jazz Festival
This project is supported by the ANZAC Centenary Arts and Culture Fund Public Grants Program


2015 AUS TOUR DATES:

Oct 24 – Brisbane – The Old Museum
Oct 30 – Wangaratta – Wangaratta Jazz Festival
Nov 1 – Melbourne – Bennett’s Lane
Nov 7 – Sydney – Foundry616
Nov 15 – Currumbin – Currumbin Eco Village
Dec 11 – Cairns – Centre of Contemporary Art

Watch a Live Performance of Title Track ‘Hope In My Pocket’ @ Brisbane Jazz Festival

Pre-order the album as DIGITAL, 180gram VINYL, or CD edition with 12 page booklet. All physical copies come with downloads of the album and pre-orders receive instant download of the tracks A MOTHER’S PLEA and HOPE IN MY POCKET.