These Fools are releasing a new CD
Musical myth unleashes journey through darkness to new world of enlightenment
PREVIEW
Fools Tongue CD release Where: Capitol Theatre, Fort Edmonton Park When: doors at 6 p.m. Tickets: $20 in advance from yeglive. ca or at the door What happens when elaborate rock songs, fantasy dream scenarios, exotic instruments, global rhythms and a talent for music theatre come together?
You might call it an alternative global art rock opera, or maybe just New World.
That’s the new release from the multi-instrumental vocal duo of Luke Ertman and Jeff Ramsey, working under the banner Fools Tongue. But their sophisticated, eclectic concept album is hard to categorize. As they ponder how to market this New World, the only thing Ertman is sure of is it’s not pop. “Every time we’ve tried to make a straight pop song it’s just awful.”
Which is not to suggest New World doesn’t have an intriguing, entertaining sound. In the months leading up to its official release, the album has already enjoyed radio airplay in Edmonton.
Ramsey, who also designed the snazzy CD graphics, admits the project has taken a lot of time, but working with a specific story outline helped keep them on track. “Once we finished the album, we were really excited about getting it in front of people, but we realized it was going to be bigger than anything we’ve ever done before.”
Fools Tongue has been around for about five years in some form. Mounting creative frustrations after a drummer’s exit about two years ago inspired Ertman and Ramsey to drop their previous incarnation as a folk-rock trio and shift directions toward what would become the New World project.
“Up until then we had always been a live band, rehearsing tunes and playing live,” Ertman explains. “But I had done a lot of studio work for the theatre so we decided to work in the studio more. Now it has evolved into something bigger than the two of us, so this album launch is actually our first show with an expanded band to recreate the album.”
Five other musicians will join Ertman and Ramsey onstage Saturday for the launch, with a bank of percussionists, timpani included, and Calgary vocalist Cassia Schramm. She’s the only other artist apart from the duo on the CD, cast as a phantom female character.
At the composition level, New World offers extended song forms, layered vocal harmonies and a myriad range of influences, from rock and folk-pop to acoustic and electronic drums in a Middle Eastern vein. Given the luxury of unlimited time to experiment in his own studio, Ertman says their working methods are pretty intuitive.
“The song forms just kind of happened but once we had all these different tunes, when we were trying to make the through-story make sense, one story we grabbed hold of was Alice In Wonderland. Once you’re down the rabbit hole, anything goes.”
Their New World myth serves to unleash theatrical imagery over the hour-long 14-track CD. The story thread entails a dream scenario as the protagonist is awakened in the middle of the night by a strangely familiar woman. He follows her on a journey into darkness that eventually brings them to a new world and enlightenment.
That theme has a certain spiritual element but it’s open to interpretation, says Ertman. “It involves an encounter but it wasn’t intended to feel religious or preachy at all.”
Ertman and Ramsey became friends in grade school, growing up in Millet, just south of Edmonton, sharing varied musical tastes which included Peter Gabriel, Yes, U2 and Sigur Ros and Sting. They took up string instruments to start a rock band in Grade 9.
Ramsey got his diploma in guitar from Grant MacEwan University and makes his living as a private guitar instructor. He plays a range of guitars plus the “bowguit,” a cross between an electric guitar and cello he designed.
Ertman took up the 10-string Chapman Stick in high school. Work in a series of music-theatre productions led to his Bachelor of Music at the University of Alberta. His father is a professional theatre designer/director and Ertman drew from that example to build a career scoring music for live theatre. His work on 50 shows over the past decade for companies in Alberta and British Columbia included the music for Canadian Badlands Passion Play, mostly created in his own studio.