Sweet Billy Pilgrim
Mercury Music Prize-nominees Sweet Billy Pilgrim release the first single from their forthcoming album on April 16th. Entitled ‘Joyful Reunion’ it’s the opening track to that album, ‘Crown And Treaty’, which is released on the same day. The video, which was directed by Julian Simpson (Dr. Who / Hustle / Spooks) and shot in a wintry North London.
‘Joyful Reunion’ with its glorious marching beats, tales of Emperor Charlemagne and epic, swelling finale showcases the expansive nature of ‘Crown And Treaty’, which is one of the most dramatic and ambitious albums to be released this year.
As lead singer Tim Elsenburg explains, "I wanted a fanfare to open the record, a statement of intent so that within seconds people knew it was going to be very different to the previous record," and ‘Joyful Reunion’ achieves just that.
Inspired by a trip to Vienna which culminated in a late-night walk around that city’s historic streets, the lyrics deal with Tim’s acknowledgement that however hard we try to break free of the past, the ghosts of our history will always find us. But as we destroy history we write new chapters even faster.
So ‘Joyful Reunion’ is both a fanfare and a funeral march simultaneously, featuring Tim and co-vocalist Jana Carpenter alongside the massed voices of 40 fans who responded to a Facebook invitation to come along to the studio and provide a choir for a couple of songs the band were working on. "We tear the pages out" sing the fans, unaware at the time of the beautiful, melancholic, uplifting sound that they were to become...
Sweet Billy Pilgrim follow their recent sold-out headline show in London as part of the HMV Next Big Thing series of gigs with further live performances to be announced soon where they’ll be bringing the magical sounds of ‘Crown And Treaty’ to life with their newly-expanded six-piece live band.
‘Crown And Treaty’ is released on April 16th on EMI Label Services. It is quite simply stunning. Heartfelt, beautiful, literate, artistic and capable of moving you to tears, it is the sound of a band taking a quantum leap forward, throwing every ounce of their belief, passion and dreams into the creation of a truly special body of work.
This is an album without a wasted moment, the sound of Sweet Billy Pilgrim stepping out of the shadows and establishing themselves as one of the most exciting surprises of 2012.
Each and every song on ‘Crown And Treaty’ is an unfurling, revealing gem; a beautiful, moving, uplifting treat; a distillation of atmosphere that creates a whole new world to explore.