Fanfarlo are a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

-based indie/ alternative band formed in 2006 by Swedish musician Simon Balthazar. They fuse elements of

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

and

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

using eclectic instrumentation including

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

, musical saw,

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

and

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

. Since their formation they have released three studio albums and one EP.

Background

The band, whose name comes from the

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...

novella ''

La Fanfarlo ''La Fanfarlo'' is a work by French poetry, French poet Charles Baudelaire, first published in January 1847. The novella describes a fictionalised account of the writer's love affair with a dancer, Jeanne Duval. Irish Literary criticism, literar ...

'', started performing live in small London indie clubs in 2006, and released four limited edition 7" singles on London-based indie labels (one of which is a split single with Sleeping States) throughout 2006–2008. Their debut album, ''

Reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

'', was recorded in October/November 2008 at Tarquin Studios, Connecticut, USA and was produced by

Peter Katis Peter Katis is an American Grammy Award-winning record producer, audio engineer, mixer, and musician. Katis is best known for working with alternative and indie rock bands. He works primarily out of his own residential studio, Tarquin Studios, ...

( The National,

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

). The album was released in February 2009 on the band's own label Raffle Bat and later licensed to the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

imprint Canvasback, who released it in the UK and US in October 2009 and in Europe in April 2010. Their single "The Walls Are Coming Down" was released during September 2009. The music video for the single was directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard and features escape artist Roslyn Walker performing the Hanging Straitjacket Escape, a stunt first performed by

Harry Houdini Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in ...

in the early 1900s. The stunt was also incorporated into the band's show at Webster Hall in New York on 19 December 2009 (this time by escape artist Michael Lee). In early September 2011, the band announced on their website that their newest album, ''Rooms Filled with Light'', was finished and posted a video of the first song, "Replicate". The album was released on 28 February 2012 in the United States, and on 27 February everywhere else. In October 2013 the band released ''The Sea'' EP, which is the first part of a science-fiction/speculative/Utopian concept project. The lyrical content of this whole project presents a discussion about where humanity has come from (potentially), what we have become, and where we are heading. This is spoken of in terms of culture and science. The band have described their current sound as Space Opera meets Spaghetti Western. On 10 February 2014 the band released their third regular studio album, titled ''Let's Go Extinct'', on their own New World Records label. In 2016, Balthazar collaborated with King Knut, as SWOON, and released the single "Heatwave". Since 2015, Lucas has been the lead singer and guitarist for the

psychedelic pop Psychedelic pop (or acid pop) is a genre of pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the mid-to-late 1960s, elements included " trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, ...

group Vanishing Twin.

Members

* Cathy Lucas – violin, keys, mandolin, glockenspiel, vocals, musical saw * Justin Finch – bass, vocals * Leon Beckenham – trumpet, keyboards, glockenspiel, melodica, vocals * Simon Balthazar – vocals, guitar, keyboards, mandolin, saxophone, clarinet

Former members

* Amos Memon – vocals, drums and percussion (2006-2013) * Mark West – guitar, vocals, keyboard (2006-2009)

In popular media

On 24 September 2009, the song "Ghosts" from the band's debut album, ''

'', featured in episode 6 of season 6 of ''

Grey's Anatomy ''Grey's Anatomy'' is an American medical drama television series focusing on the personal and professional lives of surgical internship (medicine), interns, residency (medicine), residents, and attending physician, attendings at the fictional ...

''. The band's 2007 single "Fire Escape" featured in episode 4 of season 6 of Fox's medical drama ''

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

'' on 12 October 2009. On 15 February 2010, the band made their US television debut appearance on the ''

Late Show with David Letterman ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production com ...

'' performing their single "Harold T. Wilkins, or How to Wait for a Very Long Time". They have subsequently also performed on ''

Last Call with Carson Daly ''Last Call with Carson Daly'' is an American late-night television series that was broadcast by NBC from 2002 to 2019. Hosted by former MTV personality Carson Daly, the series was initially formatted as a late-night talk show in line with '' ...

,'' and on French TV channel Canal Plus. Their song "Atlas" is featured on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

of 2010 film '' The Twilight Saga: Eclipse''. The song was re-recorded in Austin, Texas especially for the film and was documented in Episode III of their web series, ''Under the Reservoir''. Their song "Harold T. Wilkins, or How to Wait for a Very Long Time" featured in the soundtrack to the 2010 film '' Going the Distance''. The song "I'm a Pilot" is featured in the NBC series ''

Chuck Chuck () is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to: People Arts and entertainment * Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet * Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV produce ...

'' season 4 episode 24.

Web series

In March 2010, video artist Brian Gonzalez followed the band on their third time playing the

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

music festival in Austin, Texas that resulted in a four-part web series entitled ''Under the Reservoir'' which premiered on their site 14 June 2010.

Discography

Albums

* ''

'' (2009, Raffle Bat/ Atlantic/Canvasback) * ''Rooms Filled With Light'' (28 February 2012) * ''The Sea'' EP (14 October 2013) * '' Let's Go Extinct'' (10 February 2014)

Singles

* "Talking Backwards" (2006, Fortuna POP!) * "You Are One of the Few Outsiders Who Really Understands Us" (2007, Label Fandango) * "Fire Escape" (2007, White Heat) * "Harold T. Wilkins" (2008, Felt Tip Records, split single with Sleeping States) * "Drowning Men" (2009, Moshi Moshi Records) * "The Walls Are Coming Down" (2009, Moshi Moshi Records) * "Harold T. Wilkins, or How to Wait a Very Long Time" (2010,

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

) * "You Are One"/"What Makes You Think You're the One" (2010

Record Store Day Record Store Day is a semi-annual event established in 2008 to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". Held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November, the day brings together f ...

exclusive – limited to a pressing of 3,500 units,

) * "Replicate" (2011, WGM) * "Deconstruction" (17 October 2011, Canvasback/ATL; together with a 15-minute track "Reconstruction", as

mp3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...

downloads only) *"Shiny Things" (2012, digital download)

References

External links

Fanfarlo.com
– Official page
Fanfarlo MySpace page
{{Authority control Rock music groups from London Musical groups established in 2006 Indie rock groups from London Atlantic Records artists