Product Description

“…truly magnificent. Faehse’s exquisite musicianship allows him to conjure up various images while exploring a wide range of influences he first began to absorb as a thirteen-year-old when his mum took him to a Segovia concert. Faehse’s mother was the inspiration for the album’s opening piece, ‘Shorebreak’, a solo classical guitar performance reprised on the last track…”  Billy Pinnell, Sounds Magazine 2001

Tony Faehse’s first solo album began life as a recording project with compadre and fellow band member from Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons Jeff Burstin. The pair had been performing at the Ian Potter Centre as an instumental duo whose repertoire included Faehse originals. This gave Tony the opportunity to go on and make a whole album of  his own original material, with no other agenda than to explore varied musical directions and attempt to create something that sounded beautiful.

To do this he enlisted the talents of Jeff and other musician friends, players who were to set the talent trend for his subsequent releases, Jen Anderson (violin) and Bruce Haymes (keyboards) appearing frequently. Vicka & Linda Bull make a cameo with a sung chorus on the title track Learn to Fly, and Linda adds vocal colour to Forever Samba.

But mostly this first album is instrumental, setting the pattern with the Classical (nylon string) guitar as Tony’s main “voice”, and a diverse range of musical styles examined.. Latin (Havana Nirvana, Forever Samba) gospel (Gospel Truth) flamenco (Isabella, Pasha) and celtic (Shorebreak) influences interpreted with a indie/soul/jazz/reggae groove.

This first album, a promise of things to come, opens and closes with Shorebreak, firstly as solo guitar, secondly in a band setting.  To quote Tony’s album notes;

“When I was a little boy, my mother would walk with me along the beach on perfect summer mornings. Sometimes it would be very calm, with just a delicate shorebreak wave crisply rippling, as sharp a sound as bubbles bursting in the open air. On the edge of land and life she opened my eyes to beauty.”