• News

• All

Jul 24, 2022 By Dom Gourlay Photography by Robin Clewley

Mark Peters releases his second solo album Red Sunset Dreams on Friday 16th September via Sonic Cathedral. The follow-up to 2018’s debut Innerland, Red Sunset Dreams features a number of guest musicians and vocalists including Dot Allison and BJ Cole.

Like its predecessor, Red Sunset Dreams is an album about an imaginary landscape. Whereas Innerland was an introspective psychogeographic trip inspired by Mark’s move back to his hometown of Wigan and the memories it stirred up, Red Sunset Dreams looks outwards, across the Atlantic to the United States of America, but very much through a UK prism; a representation of the subconscious Americana that’s buried deep in our collective psyches.

The result is an incredibly evocative trip through the landscapes of old Western movies, exploring their links with the North West of England while touching on wider themes such as isolation, freedom and dementia. Sonically, it builds on the palette of its predecessor with instrumentation equally inspired by the ascendant ambient Americana movement and classic country-rock.

Mark has spent the four years since Innerland recording and releasing Destiny Waiving, his third collaboration with Ulrich Schnauss, and recently followed up 2020’s new Engineers recordings (the ambient perambulations of Pictobug) with a reissue series of the band’s much sought after early albums. He has recently put a brand new band together and will be playing a series of live shows following the release of Red Sunset Dreams, calling in at :-

16th September Rough Trade Bristol

17th September Rough Trade East London

18th September Rough Trade Nottingham (w/ Some Velvet Evening DJs)

24th September The Golden Lion Todmorden

2nd October The Crescent York

The full tracklisting for Red Sunset Dreams is as follows :-

“Switch On The Sky”

“Golden Cloud”

“Silver River”

“Dusty Road Ramble”

“The Musical Box”

“Tamaroa”

“Red Sunset Dream”

“Sundowning”

About the album, its creator Mark Peters says :-

“I became obsessed with finding tracks where pedal steel guitar was the main, if not only instrument. People like Chuck Johnson, Buddy Emmons and Luke Schneider. I really enjoyed incorporating these instruments into my own tracks and just exploring the tones of them rather than trying to attempt authentic country playing. Having BJ (Cole) play on the record crystallized the whole concept,” Mark explains. “I love his playing on things like ‘Silver Moon Over Sleeping Steeples’ by David Sylvian. He’s possibly the UK’s greatest living country musician.”

Meanwhile, the lead single from the album “Switch On The Sky” featuring vocals by Dot Allison is also out now. Also featuring visuals from celebrated Lewes based artist Innerstrings, Peters says about his collaborations with Dot Allison :-

“I regard Dot highly as an artist, but it’s her exploration of similar ideas on One Dove’s cover of “Jolene” or BJ Cole playing on “Tomorrow Never Comes” from her first solo album Afterglow made me think she would be perfect. Our first conversation included the names Gene Clark, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, so it was clear that a collaboration would go well.”

Red Sunset Dreams is out on Friday 16th September through Sonic Cathedral.

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter