Artist: Stanley Brinks and The Kaniks
Title: Turtle Dove
Format: 12" album on blue vinyl in gatefold seelve | CD in digifile sleeve
Cat#: Fika051LP | Fika051CD
Release date: 5th May 2016
Bandcamp | Spotify
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.
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.
Press
"Joyous jugband songs" Uncut
“Turtle Dove is a welcome addition to Stanley Brinks’ back catalogue; he’s one of the most imaginative and accomplished songwriters around today with an unerring instinct for creating atmospheric and engaging albums. Along with his collaborators, The Kaniks, Stanley Brinks has made yet another glorious album which celebrates the individuality of us all at the same time as it reminds us we’re not all that different, really, under the skin. I can see it becoming an indispensable part of my summer soundtrack and am very much looking forward to hearing the other two albums in this trilogy of Nordic antifolk. Great stuff!” Folk Radio