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Based in Sydney, Peter Milton Walsh and his band, The Apartments, are acclaimed by critics and fans alike all over the world. Peter Milton Walsh formed The Apartments in Brisbane, 1978, and left Australia for New York a few years later, and relocated to England when The Apartments were signed by legendary English record label Rough Trade. But before leaving Australia, Walsh made his mark on the Brisbane scene. With a reputation that preceded him, Walsh was sought out by Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, members of one of Brisbane’s most critically adored bands, The Go-Betweens. Having been offered an 8-album deal by Beserkley Records (home to Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers), Forster and McLennan asked Walsh to join The Go-Betweens as their fourth member in late 1978. The union was, however, short-lived, as the deal with Beserkley fell through. Grant McLennan famously said of their different personalities, “Walsh is night, we are day. We’re sun, he’s rain.”
« The Return Of The Hypnotist ». That’s what you’d be likely to loudly proclaim on the occasion of the release of « drift », second album of Australia’s legendary The Apartments.
On this first three song EP (released in 1979 by Able Label, a record company founded by the Go Betweens), Peter Walsh revealed his dark and delicate world, with songs like ‘Help’, ‘Nobody Like You’ or ‘Refugee’.
Despite an on and off and nomadic career (from disenchantment and renunciation to the obsession of perfection), despite some behind the curtain chapters, Peter Walsh’s compositions never left us, since « the evening visits…and stays for years » (1985), their first LP composed in Brisbane inside a disused factory.
The Apartments are not back, they’ve actually always been with us. The handful of French concerts Peter Walsh made in 2009, with members of the band 49 Swimming Pools (thanks to journalist Emmanuel Tellier’s passion and right words) can only confirm this impression.
« Drift » was universally praised by the critic when released in 1993. Composed in London where Peter Walsh then lived, it is a collection of unclassified dark pieces, a timeless masterpiece, the remarkable class of a songwritter, the obsessional record of an aching mind. Sold out for many years, it became necessary to release this one again. Three unreleased songs are present on this remastered version (tape recorded demos from 1986: ‘You Wanna Cry, STOP, I’m the Staying Kind’, which were composed as a response to the rumour saying that Dusty Springfield was going back on stage.
Peter wanted her to appropriate this song). When you listen to the songs today, you can hear the very same emotion than eighteen years earlier. The energy and the pride which comes out of the compositions and the ardour present in ‘What’s Left of Your Nerve’ make these songs all the more topical and priceless.
In and Out of the Light is a classic Apartments album, with songs, lines and melodies coming back to you long after the music has stopped playing. The songs follow a set of characters who, in the aftermath of loss or simply the changes that turn up in everyone’s lives, have gone looking for some other way to live—and found it. Stories with the texture of this experience float through the intimate, reflective songs on the album.
The album came together in a new way for The Apartments. Recording began in Sydney, at the end of winter of 2019. Working a few hours a day, one or two days a week, the album was finished in the summer, with the final mix completed the day before coronavirus lockdown hit Australia in 2020. The songs took shape impressionistically across the recording days, with details of melodies, fragments of lyrics and hooks determining the form—a departure from the band’s usual way of building songs upon a bedrock of bass and drums.
Peter Milton Walsh and bass player Eliot Fish worked with producer Tim Kevin in his Marrickville studio in Sydney, while French Apartments, Natasha Penot and Antoine Chaperon, recorded their parts in various studios in France. English drummer Nick Allum worked in London.
In and Out of the Light (their 7th studio album) again features Chris Abrahams from The Necks on piano. The vocal and piano for We Talked Through Till Dawn were recorded live in one take with Peter singing as Chris played piano. They had recorded the popular Apartments song, She Sings to Forget You, in this way before. Miro Bukovsky, who played on No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal, again played flugelhorn and trumpet.
The Apartments “In and Out of the Light”: 1. Pocketful of Sunshine – 2. Write Your Way Out of Town – 3. Where You Used to Be – 4. What’s Beauty to Do – 5. Butterfly Kiss – 6. We Talked Through Till Dawn – 7. I Don’t Give a Fuck About You Anymore – 8. The Fading Light
“(…) emotionally profound, and maybe the most moving collection of songs I’ve heard in years. Untouchably great.” Dave DiMartino – Rolling Stone
"...Played with quiet grace, the eight chamber-pop songs here are alternatively harrowing and redemptive, anchored by loss.” Jon Dale – Uncut