The Tea House

5CD set containing remastered 84 tracks; 52 tracks are on CD for the first time of which 22 tracks are previously unreleased. Beautifully packaged in a high-quality clamshell box containing the 5individual CDs in card wallet sleeves. Featuring expanded versions of theband’s first three albums plus two additional discs containing their first two EPs, tracks by Landscape III and a comprehensive selection of 7” edits, 12” extended versions, remixes, B-sides, instrumentals and live tracks. With a fully illustrated 52-page perfect bound book containing brand new sleevenotes, lyrics, biographies, archive photos, original artwork, press cuttings and more. All tracks were mastered from high resolution digitisations of the original analogue master tapes. The ‘previously released’ tracks from the analogue stereo two tracks, the ‘remixes’ and ‘instrumentals’ from digitisations of the original analogue multitracks, and the ‘live’ tracks were mastered from edited digitisations of the original analogue stereo live recordings. Released with the full involvement of all the original band members.

What a beautiful task to translate the scent and character of tea into music - into sound, rhythm and harmony but what a great challenge! Because the big question is, how does tea sound? Well-known in the West is the so-called coffee house music, a music in the background to all the clatter of dishes and the conversations of the visitors, which has the purpose to beautify the stay in the cafe but also to avoid a possible silence. Quite different is the tea music on this album! It is music to listen, that tries to transcend the fragrance and character of the tea into sound. When composing this music, I let myself be inspired from the feeling that the enjoyment of the tea triggers in me, but also from the poetic words with which Menglin Chou describes the different teas.

With the help of a dozen guest musicians contributing everything from extra guitars (lots of guitars!) to trombone, this psychedelic duo from Toronto, namely vocalist Brian Erikson and guitarist Lou Roppoli, got together in 2002 with a specific aim: to record a five-cd concept chronicling the adventures of a certain 'A Nexter Niode'. It is a sort of 21st century counterculture rock opus with 60's spirit ("tune out, turn on, take a trip" sort of thing). Their first album, "The Walkabout of A. Nexter Niode: Part 1 Off the Path", is the beginning of the journey.