Time's Echo

Australian synth-pop band Pseudo Echo formed in 1982 and were influenced by the emergent British New Romantic bands Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Ultravox. By 1984, Pseudo Echo were second in popularity in their homeland only to the mighty INXS. According to rock music historian Ian McFarlane, Pseudo Echo "combined flash clothes, blow-wave hairstyles, youthful exuberance and accessible synth-pop to arrive at a winning combination … and found a ready-made audience among teenagers who fawned on the band's every move". Their international breakthrough hit was their pop-rock makeover of the Lipps Inc track, the disco classic 'Funky Town'. This was a worldwide smash hit in 1987 reaching #1 in Australia and Canada, #8 in the UK and #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100! This is a 2-disc expanded edition of their second album, "Love An Adventure", that 'Funky Town' originally appeared on.

Echo & the Bunnymen made a dignified return in 1997 with Evergreen, but that record displayed some hints of rustiness and a desire to stay hip – two things notably absent from its superb sequel, What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? Trimmed to just the duo of Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant, Echo has succeeded where many of their peers have failed – they have matured without getting stodgy, they have deepened their signature sound without appearing self-conscious. Indeed, What Are You Going to Do With Your Life? feels of a piece with their earlier albums, not only sonically, but in terms of quality. Clocking in at just 38 minutes, the record is concise and dense with detail, finding the precise tone between the floating grandeur of early Echo and the timeless romanticism of classic torch songs. It's melancholy without ever being self-pitying and it never once sounds gloomy or depressing. The key is that McCulloch and Sergeant never push too hard. They never force themselves to play up-tempo, nor do they try to recapture their "edge" – they settle into a sad groove and find all the possible variations in the sound, both sonically and emotionally.

Channeling the lessons of the experimental Porcupine into more conventional and simple structural parameters, Ocean Rain emerges as Echo & the Bunnymen's most beautiful and memorable effort. Ornamenting Ian McCulloch's most consistently strong collection of songs to date with subdued guitar textures, sweeping string arrangements, and hauntingly evocative production, the album is dramatic and majestic; "The Killing Moon," Ocean Rain's emotional centerpiece, remains the group's unrivalled pinnacle. The 2003 reissue of Ocean Rain features improved sound, new liner notes, loads of photos, and a wealth of bonus tracks. The bulk of the bonus tracks is made up of the Life at Brian's sessions, which found the band playing some of their "hits" like "The Killing Moon," "Stars Are Stars," "Silver," and "Villiers Terrace," as well as a faithful cover of the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" in a relaxed, acoustic but still very dramatic setting.

Echo & the Bunnymen caught the group at a fortuitous career juncture; the clutch of songs here were among the hookiest and most memorable the band would ever write, while the arrangements are noticeably clean and punchy, mostly eliminating strings and similar clutter to focus almost exclusively on guitars, keyboards, drums, and occasional percussion touches…

Before Depeche Mode inherited the techno-pop crown, Ultravox reigned over the electronic landscape. Pseudo Echo were one of Ultravox's most loyal fans, and their affection for the pioneering new romantics gushes from every synthethic groove on Love an Adventure. Thankfully, being a facsimile wasn't enough for Pseudo Echo. The cover of Lipps Inc.'s disco classic "Funkytown" was their only U.S. hit from Love an Adventure, and it was sadly misrepresentative of the album's stylish, hook-loaded dance rock. On "A Beat for You," driving hard rock riffs puncture Pierre Gigliotti and James Leigh's wall of synthesizers. Vocalist Brian Canham has a darkly erotic voice that only new wave groups seem to breed – imagine a cross between Jim Kerr of Simple Minds and Midge Ure of, no surprise, Ultravox. Pseudo Echo want people to move their feet, and this album is stocked with dancefloor scorchers such as "Living in a Dream", "Listening", and the funky "Try". "Funkytown" may have given Pseudo Echo a glimpse of commercial success, but the rest of Love an Adventure proved that they were capable of more.

The Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson was known for his inventiveness in allowing music and other art forms to communicate with one another in his works. British philanthropist and art collector Richard Thomas was fascinated by this process of breaking down artistic boundaries. Therefore he came up with the idea of commissioning a work that would establish a dialogue between music and the visual arts, and he instantly thought of Jóhann Jóhannsson and Berlin-based painter Thilo Heinzmann. Over a period of four years, the two artists met up from time to time and engaged in a series of in-depth conversations about art, politics and their own lives. Working to, or rather with, a painting by Heinzmann, Jóhannsson composed a new work for string quartet, 12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann, recorded by Echo Collective, which has been released on September 20, 2019, the day after what would have been his 50th birthday.