Blackfield

Blackfield is a collaboratory musical group between Porcupine Tree founder and lead singer Steven Wilson and Israeli rock singer Aviv Geffen.

History

Formation, self-titled debut (2000–2005)

Geffen, a fan of Porcupine Tree and Wilson, invited the band to play shows in Israel in 2000. He struck up a friendship with Wilson, leading to the two musicians recording together. Geffen performed backing vocals on two tracks on Porcupine Tree's In Absentia album, "The Sound of Muzak" and "Prodigal". Geffen, interested in growing a fanbase outside of Israel, approached Wilson about starting their own project, which would become Blackfield. Originally planned as an EP for a 2001 release, it eventually evolved into a 2004 self-titled full-length recording.^[2]

Outside of Israel, the band has received constant comparison to Porcupine Tree, Wilson's most popular project. In response, Wilson has explained:

...Porcupine Tree would never be so focused on the art of a 3 minute pop song, which I believe. Blackfield is all about the art of a great tradition pop song of verse-chorus-verse-chorus. Porcupine Tree has never been about that, although we have fraternized a little bit with the art of pop music. Porcupine Tree has always been more about horizontally complex long pieces and the album is an overall piece rather than lots of little pieces... Aviv is not a big fan of heavy music and he is not a big fan of long pieces so immediately the meeting point had to be somewhere where we were both focused on short melancholic songs.^[3]

In early 2004 the band debuted live on a couple of promotional TV performances in Israel. This line-up featured drummer Chris Maitland (drummer of Porcupine Tree from 1993 to 2002), who was replaced by Tomer Zidkyahu, for a European tour that followed in the Autumn of 2004.

Their first self-titled album was released in Israel and Europe in 2004, and the United States in 2005.

Blackfield II (2006–2009)

While the band's first album was created over a relatively long period of time, the follow up album, Blackfield II, was created in one short burst of activity.^[4] Wilson and Geffen worked on their respective projects throughout the end of 2005, but in early 2006 Wilson moved to Israel for six months to work on the album.^[5] The album was released in February 2007 in Europe and March 2007 in the United States. In the same year, keyboardist Daniel Salomon left the band to continue his successful solo career. Salomon was replaced by Eran Mitelman, former keyboardist for popular Israeli hard rock band HaYehudim.

In a 2008 interview Steven Wilson discussed Blackfield's future:^[6]

"I think we’re going to tentatively start working on some new songs and that’s as far as we’ve got regarding planning. I think there almost certainly will be another record. As with No-Man and my other projects, there’s no reason to stop doing them as long as the music keeps flowing."

In January 2009, to promote his first English-language European release, Geffen went on a small tour of Europe with the Blackfield live band, including Wilson being billed as a special guest. Half of the set consisted of songs from the then yet to be released first English language solo album by Geffen while the rest was a selection of Blackfield songs. Wilson would also appear on three tracks from the album.

Welcome to my DNA (2010–present)

In April 2010, Aviv and Steven got into studio to begin writing the follow-up to Blackfield II.^[7] Welcome to my DNA was released on the 28th of March 2011^[8] and supported by a European and US tour also their first show ever in Mexico^[9]

Cross-overs

There has been some overlap between Blackfield and Geffen and Wilson's other projects. The songs "Scars," "Cloudy Now," "Glow," "1,000 People," "Epidemic," "End of the World" and "Zigota" had originally been written by Geffen in Hebrew before being translated into English and adapted by Blackfield, even if they hadn't all been released on his recordings yet. The band has also performed Porcupine Tree's "Waiting" and "Feel So Low" at times, with Geffen singing the first verse in Hebrew on the latter (Geffen had already covered it at his own shows prior to forming Blackfield), as well as covering Alanis Morrisette's "Thank U," which Wilson had previously recorded solo for his own Cover Versions series. The song "Christenings" was originally conceived during Wilson's writing sessions for Porcupine Tree's 2005 release Deadwing, but was released on Blackfield II instead.

Band members

Lineup

Steven Wilson – lead vocals, lead guitar, additional keyboards (2001–present)
Aviv Geffen – lead vocals, guitars, rhythm guitar, keyboards (2001–present)
Seffy Efrati – backing vocals, bass guitar (2004–present)
Eran Mitelman – backing vocals, piano, keyboards (2007–present)
Tomer Z – drums, percussion (2004–present)

Former members

Daniel Salomon – backing vocals, piano, keyboards (2004–2007)
Chris Maitland – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2001–2004)

Discography

Studio albums

January, 2004	Blackfield
February, 2007	Blackfield II
March, 2011	Welcome to My DNA (UK chart peak: #139^[10])

DVDs

October, 2007

Live in New York City

Singles

November 2003	"Hello"
December 2003	"Pain"
March 2004	"Blackfield"
May 2004	"Cloudy Now"
January 2007	"Once"
March 2007	"Miss U"
March 2007	"My Gift of Silence"
March 2011	"Waving"

References

External links

[1] ttp://www.popmatters.com/music/reviews/b/blackfield-st2005.shtml

[2] ttp://www.starpulse.com/Music/Blackfield/Biography/

[3] ttp://designermagazine.tripod.com/PorcupineTreeINT3.html

[4] ttp://www.poprockbands.com/blackfield/biography/prb.html

[5] ttp://www.poprockbands.com/blackfield/biography/prb.html

[6] ttp://www.innerviews.org/inner/noman2.html

[7] "Israeli rocker Aviv Geffen conquers Berlin - Haaretz Diary Newspaper". Haaretz. 2010-04-26. Retrieved 2010-05-18. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

[8] ttp://www.burningshed.com/store/stevenwilson/collection/11/

[9] ttp://twitter.com/#!/blackfieldband

[10] ttp://www.zobbel.de/cluk/110409cluk.txt

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