For the first time ever, Fika Recordings is getting involved in Record Store Day!Record shops, and the people who own and work in them, are wonderful. Before Fika got going (back when I had 'free time'!), there'd be nothing better than spending lazy afternoons in Selectadisc in Nottingham, or Zulu in Vancouver, or Soundclash in Norwich, simply browsing, chatting and listening to records... buying a record I'd been meaning to pick up, and coming out with a few other treats that were completely new to me, many of which have gone on to become some of my favourite albums, and which still take me back to that very shop, listening to it for the very first time, all off the back of a recommendation from someone who really cared. That's what record shops mean to Fika, and that's what Fika wants Record Store Day to be about - a celebration of great music, great people and great shops. So here we are, our first RSD release - here hopes we can all crowd out yet another over-priced deluxe re-issue double vinyl package of an album your Dad bought and never really liked anyway...
Following the albums Gin and My Ass recorded with The Wave Pictures in un-gentrified East London, Stanley Brinks (aka André Herman Dune) returns with a new collaborative album, this time with the Norwegian folk collective The Kaniks as his backing band. Eschewing a traditional recording studio, André took The Kaniks to a remote island outside the small town of Egersund in south west Norway. Over the course of week of midnight sun, midnight swims and midnight beers on their isolated rocky island, living and recording in the only building on the island, the (now un-manned) mid 19th century Vibberodden lighthouse at the invitation of the town’s mayor, Stanley Brinks and The Kaniks recorded three albums of material; Turtle Dove is the first of those three to be released. Brinks is renowned for his unique antifolk style: both playful and suggestive, insightful and entertaining. His fondness for calypso and the unusual provide the perfect foil to The Kaniks’, whose folk instrumentation and country and bluegrass influences take these 12 songs to a joyous place Brinks hasn’t been before in his extensive back catalogue.
Turtle Dove comes on blue vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with full download and bonus download of 2 track single “Too Much Women”. It is a Record Store Day exclusive release, on 16th April 2016. It is released digitally on the 22nd of April, from when any remaining copies will be available to order from the Fika Recordings online shop. It is preceded by the two track digital single Too Much Women on the 8th of April.
Stanley Brinks and The Kaniks
Stanley Brinks was born in Paris, France, in 1973. He studied a bit of biology and worked as a nurse for a while. Half Swedish, half Moroccan, strongly inclined to travel the world, he soon began spending most of his life on the road and developed a strong relationship with New York. By the late 90s he’d become a full time singer-songwriter – André Herman Düne – as part of three piece indie-rock band, Herman Düne. Several albums and Peel sessions later and after a decade of touring Europe, mostly with American songwriters such as Jeffrey Lewis, Calvin Johnson and early Arcade Fire he settled in Berlin. The early carnival music of Trinidad became a passion, and in the early 21st century he became the unquestioned master of European calypso, changing his name to Stanley Brinks. Under this moniker he has recorded more than 100 albums, collaborated with the New York Antifolk scene on several occasions, recorded and toured with traditional Norwegian musicians, and played a lot with The Wave Pictures.
The word "kanik" first came about when some people in the church choir realized how out of tune they were, and decided to call themselves the "cannots" (Norwegian "kan ikke”): those who can not sing. The Kaniks are all traditional Norwegian musicians, and they actually are good singers. Brinks met them partying in the harbor of Egersund, a fishing town in the wild Southwest of Norway. They were all in different bands of all kinds, playing Cajun music, Johnny Cash covers, Norwegian folk songs, modern jazz, communist anthems, and West African instrumentals.
StanLighthouse