Fender

“Leo Fender’s contribution to the sound of modern music is immeasurable. The pop music explosion of the 1950s and 60s would not have happened without the electric guitar and, perhaps more importantly, the electric bass.”
So begins Martin Kelly’s notes for the CD of his book about Fender guitars. A book about music of course lacks the medium that it describes, so Martin came to Ace with a proposal to produce an accompanying CD that would make his pages even more vibrant. We were more than happy to celebrate the great sounds that Leo Fender helped conceive through his inspirational instruments.

Nightwalker is a suite inspired by Ketil Bjornstads own experiences as a 'nightwalker' …in nature, in the streets of Oslo or in a musical landscape.

Frank Pleyer (28. Juni 1929 in Haberspirk (Tschechoslowakei) - 3. Januar 2006) war ein deutscher Jazz- und Unterhaltungsmusiker (Orchesterleitung, Arrangements, Komposition). Pleyer studierte an der Musikschule in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Seit 1948 lebte er in München, wo er für den Rundfunk arbeitete und für die Orchester von Max Greger, Hugo Strasser, Erwin Lehn, Willi Stech und Ernst Mosch arrangierte. Seit Mitte der 1950er Jahre leitete er eine Studioband unter eigenem Namen, mit der er Alben wie Tanz-Party oder Cadets Happening veröffentlichte. Mit Mosch schrieb er auch einige volkstümliche Titel, insbesondere für die Original Straßenmusikanten. Zudem leitete er das Radiounterhaltungsorchester Zürich bzw. die DRS Big Band (With Compliments, Frank, 1984).

In the two-and-a-half years between his first single, the urgent and atmospheric "Play God," and the release of his full-length debut in 2019, much was made of U.K. singer and songwriter Sam Fender's relatively young age – 23 by the arrival of the latter. After all, he was drawing frequent comparisons to influence Bruce Springsteen, both for the sound of his early singles and for the working-class compassion on display in his lyrics, and he won the Critics' Choice Brit Award in late 2018, an honor previously bestowed upon, among others, Adele and Sam Smith.

The loss of youth and young manhood and the trials of adolescence have provided ample inspiration for musicians since forever. The latter, in particular, has been well encapsulated by US rockers Sharon Van Etten (‘Seventeen’, 2019) and Olivia Rodrigo (‘Brutal’, 2021) in recent years, but the former is one that Sam Fender has mastered like few others. It’s a topic that requires a delicate approach; the transition from boy to man is assumed to be dominated by bravado, and often overshadows causes that need a closer look.