Telefís, the ground-breaking collaboration between acclaimed producer Garret "Jacknife" Lee (U2, R.E.M., The Killers) and late singer/lyricist Cathal Coughlan (Microdisney, The Fatima Mansions) have just released their second album of 2022 - a Dó.
The album was finished several months prior to the sad passing of Cathal Coughlan on 18 May earlier this year.
"His dying was always a part of these songs. Not literally but the reflections and the examination of where he came from," says Jacknife.
"After his death we could have waited and I accepted that we might have to, but now I just want to celebrate Cathal. I want people to know that he was active up to the last few days. We were working on a 3rd album - writing and planning.
"I know that might have been something to just take his mind off his illness, but that was the way he dealt with the situation and I want to honour that. There are many layers to Cathal Coughlan.
"The mischief and the profound melancholy. It's on show on this album. It’s some of his best work. His death will show how deep these lyrics are, how playful he was when writing stuff like this knowing what lay ahead of him. It shows his commitment to words and ideas. It’s his life."
One of the album’s most emotionally affecting tracks is Feed The Light and as Jacknife says, "This is one of my favourites from a Dó and one of our more sparsely arranged songs. With all this space you get to hear the nuances and the compelling beauty of Cathal’s voice. "…these green shoots of June, nonetheless bloom…all that you’ve been is dots on a screen".
"What a line. It just floors me. I like when his Cathal’s voice is paired with my those of my daughters Betsey and Esme. We’ve done this a few times on both albums. The contrast here give the song’s chorus extra pathos.
"It seemed almost sacrilegious to process Cathal’s voice with the vocoder but when done it pushed the emotional power even further. Davide Rossi, my friend and string arranger, is always brilliant, but here, he is fantastic. We got Davide’s son Leo to sing the melody along with my new favorite instrument - the recorder. I am trying to put the recorder on everything now even though I can’t really play it.
"I’ve separated myself from the process of making and writing this song. It’s one of those I can listen to on repeat and it makes me grateful that I got the opportunity to create something this special with Cathal.
"Of all the songs I’ve been involved with this stands out for me. I’m always looking to make something unique that has emotional power, but I rarely achieve it. This one worked.
"The video felt like falling down a hill once I started to collect the footage. It almost made itself. The hours of my youth wasted watching anything on the screen came back to me.
"Literally anything I would watch - Crown Court, Sale Of The Century, Dixon Of Dock Green, The Sullivans, Champion The Wonderhorse, This Morning with Richard and Judy, anything.
"Even reading pages and pages of Ceefax…anything. Hours. Days. Perhaps Years. Maybe that is what made me".
Buy here a Dó here: CD/Cassette/LP: http://ffm.to/telefis2. Digital: http://telefis.bandcamp.com. Streaming: http://ffm.to/telefis2digi.
