Today sees the release of a brand new EP by South African groundbreaking trio, Beatenberg. The EP, entitled On The Way To Beatenberg’ is the musical stalwarts’ first new offering in 4 years.
Having just completed UK dates with George Ezra, the band set off on a sold out headline tour on 14 November at Rockwood Music Hall in New York before heading to LA, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Johannesburg and Cape Town. They have also just been announced as part of the first 191 artists scheduled for SXSW 2023.
More info about On The Way To Beatenberg
Self-produced by the trio, Beatenberg already started writing the EP in the Southern Hemisphere since the summer of 2018/2019. At first they had no plan to release it, but got back into the songs earlier in 2022. The band recorded the EP at Sunset Recording Studios outside Stellenbosch, with a few additions in Cape Town.
After their previous album ’12 Views’ took quite some time to finish, Matthew Field wanted to write something new very quickly. Ironically, after the initial recording sessions, it sat around for years. The trio got together as a band again this year and wanting to share something new with the world and point themselves in a musical direction again, they decided to revisit the recordings.
Matthew field comments on Beatenberg‘s new EP
“Numbers, judgement, the mundane, contradiction. These things inspired me throughout. The chorus in 85 is a translation of Catullus’s short poem, simply called by its number which is 85. The instrumental section is maybe my favourite part on the whole EP and is designed for calling down the numbers from the sky by dancing.”
As one of the most celebrated bands to emerge from South Africa over the past decade, Beatenberg describes their new music as ‘similar in spirit to their other music’ and ‘songs that are not concerned with doing anything else but being themselves’. Fans can expect music and words that arose in response to real feeling and were written, put together and finished with a lot of thought and care.
Matthew Field is proud of Beatenberg‘s new EP
“I am proud of the songs – I love them in fact – and there are things in each of them I don’t think I have achieved before. But I can’t ever be sure what other people like or love. We are returning tentatively and with very humble expectations, like an athlete who is coming back from an injury. We take each match as it comes, and we give 110%.”
Watch the lyric video for “85” below:
You can stream / download On The Way To Beatenberg HERE.
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