'The band has a steady grasp on where ambience ends and real late night, bruised-hearted atmosphere begins…' Rolling Stone Magazine AUS SOFAMECCA – CHILDREN DUST The obsession with the dramatic, the sometimes tragic, shapes the sounds of Sofamecca’s third album ‘Children Dust’... Following critical acclaim for their 2002 self titled release ‘Sofa Mecca’ and 2005 album ‘Commuters’, Sofamecca continue to boldly break contemporary musical boundaries with their latest endeavour. ‘Children Dust’ offers a rich diversity of sound and melody, from the orchestral to the down right quirky, alternative-country to folk-rock – a venture into a broad expanse of deeply emotive territories. Sofamecca shape and meld these sounds into the colourful backdrop for vocalist Jason Gann’s campfire-like tales. This new album sees Sofamecca adopt a more organic approach to achieving their unique sound, foregoing much of the samples and loops from previous releases in favour of a more intimate live sound. Still expect to be seduced by an assorted array of electro-ambient textures and the like, but on this new release you’ll discover a quieter, more refined side to Sofamecca. Conventional western sounds are combined with an array of unusual musical instruments garnered from travels to India and Asia, in a quest to compliment the intrigue of Gann’s worldy lyrics. The darkly romantic, almost vaudeville nature of Sofamecca’s music is what makes it so well suited for film, with songs featured in cult US TV series ‘Dirt’, Australian series ‘Wilfred’ and recent Australian feature film ‘Rats and Cats’. Although still a rock album at heart, ‘Children Dust’ has a broad, cinematic quality. “We approach each new album much in the way I approach a new script”, actor, writer and singer Jason Gann says, “We try to infuse all of the drama and twisting plotlines of a well written screenplay, to take the listener on a journey through the album’s many scenes and imaginary set locations. To carry them as far as we dare into our personal landscape, until they are well and truly lost”, Gann jokes. The making of ‘Children Dust’ was all the more poignant for the band due to the tragic passing of long time member Shane Dowsett during the album’s recording and something that has shaped the album as a whole. Gann comments, “Although lyrically and emotionally ‘Children Dust’ ventures into some fairly dark territory, hopefully it eventually steers the listener back to the same warm space we discovered upon the album’s completion. This is a special album for the band and I think it shows”. PAST REVIEWS Millennial mood music... The 21st century thinking person's record collection is a place where eclectic outfits go to hang. You should expect, at the very least, sounds from Mercury Rev and Doves, maybe even vet janglers the Church. Homegrown dabblers Sofa Mecca are down with this - from the Deserter's Songs-like opening of their debut album and onwards, through tracks that shimmer like missing cuts from Doves' Lost Souls, there's a very knowing, jarringly familiar quality to this lush, darkly romantic set. Jason Gann's fragile, otherwordly vocals sound a la Jonathan Donahue or Steve Kilbey, like they're beamed in from Alpha Centauri, and the band has a steady grasp on where ambience ends and real late-night, bruised-hearted atmosphere begins... Jeff Apter, Rolling Stone Magazine AUS