Artist Press Gallery
Click to use image viewer...
Press
What the Media have to Say...
“There’s a kind of smoky sensual world weariness to Robyn’s new album. Yet there is also vitality and verve, anger and angst, barbs and bouquets. Archer has lived this music for a long time, yet each time she approaches it, she brings something new. It’s hard to imagine another performer bringing similar guts to this music. Can anyone tire of this music? And what better advocate than that fearless proselytizer, our very own Archer.”
(Vincent Plush 4.5 out of 5, The Weekend Australian)
CABARET: Robyn Archer ★★★★
CLASSIC CABARET RARITIES (Rouseabout)
Had his music not done the job, Aristide Bruant's immortality was assured by Toulouse-Lautrec's posters famously depicting the singer-songwriter in black hat and scarlet scarf.
A third of this album focuses on Paris circa 1880-1900, featuring Bruant's scowling view of a corrupted world. Robyn Archer's English translations reveal chilling parallels with the dark visions of William Blake's Songs of Experience, and the singer revels in material that suits a theatrical delivery spiked with words spat out with superb venom.
The second third comes from Weimar Berlin before Nazism blotted out a sunnier optimism; songs that play to Archer's arch playfulness. Moritat and Falling in Love Again aside, they are less familiar pieces, including the black humour of Frank Wedekind's Granny Murderer and the tender Eine Kleine Sehnsucht.
She closes the circle by returning to Paris, this time in the 1950s: the world of Brel. Archer's singing is expertly supported by Michael Morley (piano, vocals) and George Butrumlis (accordion, bass accordion, vocals). The one quibble is that sometimes she could have essayed a more complete surrender to the wonderment, sensuousness or desolation of these songs.
(John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald)
The award winning and much loved singer, Robyn Archer, who possesses a multitude of strings to her glittering bow, has been a dynamic and integral part of the international cabaret scene for many years.
On this entertaining collection, which is comprised of a gaggle of intriguing rarities, Archer is joined by Michael Morley (piano and vocals) and George Butrumlis (accordion, orchestral bass accordion and vocals).
The album is divided neatly into three sections: "Paris 1880s-1890s", "Berlin 1900s-1930s" and “Paris 1950s".
One of the most enriching aspects of this album, is the arresting and unexpected insights that some of the songs provide into Paris during the 1880s and 1890s.
Such insights may compel the casual listener to view the city's history, free of the misty eyed idealistic glow, that thoughts of Paris can typically conjure.
For example, "Here Comes the Cholera" fuses a jaunty melody with black humour and provides a rather eye opening glimpse into the impacts of a rampant and flourishing disease during the late Nineteenth Century.
On "Classic Cabaret Rarities" Archer both entertains and educates.
(Graham Blackley, Trad&Now)
“It’s done! Robyn’s Classic Cabaret Rarities has been added to my playlist and goes to air this coming Friday! This kind of material is History Brought to Life and is the perfect complement to Hills Radio’s The Big Band Era. Many thanks for keeping us in the loop.
Cheers for now…”
(Bill Hodgson, Hills Radio 88.9FM)
“I look forward to having a listen. Robyn's a very interesting and talented woman.”
(Anne McAllister, Celtic Folk, 3CR) |
