MASTERPIECE RECORDS RELEASES
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Artistic collaborators Geoffrey Datson and Annette Hughes form the psychedelic folk duo DATSON+HUGHES. The duo formed to perform new material and give voice to Geoff's vast back catalogue of songs written since the early eighties.
Since leaving Sydney in 2004 they spent 15 years in relative seclusion in the back-blocks of the Sunshine Coast in SE Queensland. In 2008 Hughes wrote a memoir, Art Life Chooks, about the wrenching move from city to country but as the dust settled, they realised that what what they lost by leaving the city was compensated by plenty of time - time to think, reflect, practice and just play together for the sheer pleasure of it.
The duo was well rehearsed when the pair met award-winning record producer Kalju Tonuma, another escapee from the insanity of the city. He had spent several years in front of a console mixing some of the biggest bands of his generation and had just moved to the next valley. Kal swept in, set up a load of old skool microphones in the living room and everything changed. When he presented 'Eve Fooled Yourself' all covered in his magic production dust. What had been intended as only a sampler of their live sound morphed into the wildly ambitious recording project.
Now, four years later, Kalju has delivered the final mixes with co-producer, Megan Bernard on board who has brought virtuosic musicianship and sublime, etherial vocal arrangements to the project: 40 years in the making. It has taken that long to arrive at the perfect combination of players to bring the work to its most beautiful and polished expression. In 2020 the duo will release part two of the project - Now and Forever.
The duo has been touring solidly up and down East Coast, Australia and since 2018, spends 6 months in Europe touring and collaborating, most recently in 2019 with Hungarian techno duo Siblicity at the OZORA psych trance festival in July, Beglika in Bulgaria, as well as participation in various artist in residence PROJECTS
Since leaving Sydney in 2004 they spent 15 years in relative seclusion in the back-blocks of the Sunshine Coast in SE Queensland. In 2008 Hughes wrote a memoir, Art Life Chooks, about the wrenching move from city to country but as the dust settled, they realised that what what they lost by leaving the city was compensated by plenty of time - time to think, reflect, practice and just play together for the sheer pleasure of it.
The duo was well rehearsed when the pair met award-winning record producer Kalju Tonuma, another escapee from the insanity of the city. He had spent several years in front of a console mixing some of the biggest bands of his generation and had just moved to the next valley. Kal swept in, set up a load of old skool microphones in the living room and everything changed. When he presented 'Eve Fooled Yourself' all covered in his magic production dust. What had been intended as only a sampler of their live sound morphed into the wildly ambitious recording project.
Now, four years later, Kalju has delivered the final mixes with co-producer, Megan Bernard on board who has brought virtuosic musicianship and sublime, etherial vocal arrangements to the project: 40 years in the making. It has taken that long to arrive at the perfect combination of players to bring the work to its most beautiful and polished expression. In 2020 the duo will release part two of the project - Now and Forever.
The duo has been touring solidly up and down East Coast, Australia and since 2018, spends 6 months in Europe touring and collaborating, most recently in 2019 with Hungarian techno duo Siblicity at the OZORA psych trance festival in July, Beglika in Bulgaria, as well as participation in various artist in residence PROJECTS