Elefant Records 25th Anniversary Collection

Bobby Wratten is one of Elefant Records’ most significant icons. We feel, and we want him to feel, that Elefant Records was, is, and will always be his home. His sound and his songs represent us somehow where ever they are played, and we are tremendous fans of all his musical projects and his various collaborations: THE FIELD MICE, TREMBLING BLUE STARS, NORTHERN PICTURE LIBRARY, LIGHTNING IN A TWILIGHT HOUR, etc. That’s why we absolutely had to include one of his albums in the diverse collection of recovered material that we are doing for the label’s 25th anniversary. And for the occasion, we have chosen his last album as TREMBLING BLUE STARS, “Fast Trains And Telegraph Wires”, in a very special format and, for the first time, on vinyl.

TREMBLING BLUE STARS began as a side-project of one of the members of the dearly missed THE FIELD MICE, the most important group from the Sarah Records label. But quickly, with the arrival of the marvelous “Her Handwriting” (1996), the comparisons stopped. The project clearly was its own entity – that of an artist who poured his feelings into each and every note, who went beyond creating a soundtrack for our emotions and actually turned the emotions into music. All of this was influenced by his break-up with Annemari Davies, his band-mate in THE FIELD MICE and NORTHERN PICTURE LIBRARY. Since then, there have been 15 years (from 1996 to 201 [ Read more ]

This past June 20th, in the Casa de América in Madrid, the Independent Music Awards [UFI] were held. Here at Elefant we want to thank everyone who helped make it possible for us to win the prize for the “Best Independent Record Label” category.

Congratulations to all the winners, whom you can see for all the different categories here: http://www.premiosdelamusicaindependiente.com/11/

The trophy was designed by Olaf Ladousse, and this is especially exciting for us, since we admire him so much and are long-standing fans of his work as graphic artist, designer, musician, inventor and fanziner. The following is a description of the priceless instrument-trophy:

“Heir of a battery and a microchip emigrated from the plastic body of a toy accidently abandoned by a spoiled child, the doorag makes its way among tones and rhythms. Electric circuitry mutation via photoelectronic cells and a dancing spring, the instrument/trophy makes the Independent Music Awards ceremony more enjoyable, sensitive to the applause and outbursts. Created by Olaf Ladousse with his own hands, it is the fruit of his homemade experiments with empirical “circuit bending” electronics.”

ELEFANT bands in the UFI 2011 Independent Music Award Finals: TREMBLING BLUE STARS, THE SCHOOL, LUCKY SOUL, STEREO TOTAL

SINGLE: Best Pop Album and Best ArtworkASTRUD: Best Videoclip and Best Live PerformerPAPA TOPO: Best VideoclipTREMBLING BLUE STARS: Best International ArtistTHE SCHOOL: [ Read more ]

From 1st to 15th June the audience will decide who will emerge victorious in each category trough a vote carried out at:  http://www.premiosdelamusicaindependiente.com/11/index.phpcategoríadest=11

SINGLE: Best Pop Album and Best ArtworkASTRUD: Best Videoclip and Best Live PerformerPAPA TOPO: Best VideoclipTREMBLING BLUE STARS: Best International ArtistTHE SCHOOL: Best International ArtistELEFANT RECORDS: Best Indie Label

Los 33 de Radio 3 [Spanish National Radio]: Audience’s Choicehttp://www.rtve.es/radio/radio3/premiosufiElefant Bands:LUCKY SOULASTRUD& Col·lectiu BrossaPAPA TOPOSINGLESTEREO TOTAL

Here are the links if you feel like voting!

**Best Pop Album:

SINGLE “Monólogo Interior”Vote

**Best Artwork:

SINGLE “Monólogo Interior” Best Artwork by Javier AramburuVote

**Best International Artist:

THE SCHOOL Vote

TREMBLING BLUE STARS Vote

**Best Videoclip:

PAPA TOPO “Oso Panda” Directed by Lluís Prieto (Llaüt Digital) Vote

ASTRUD & Col·lectiu Brossa “La música de las supercuerdas” Directed by Jimmy GimferrerVote

**Best Live Performer:

ASTRUD & Col·lectiu BrossaVote

**Best Indie Label:

ELEFANT RECORDS Vote

———————————————————————————————————̵ [ Read more ]

Goodbyes are always sad. And even more so when what you’re saying goodbye to is something you have been emotionally attached to for a long time. We imagine that many of TREMBLING BLUE STARS fans will feel something like what we are feeling right now, a mix of bitterness, for the arrival of the end, and also happiness, to be able to enjoy the new material from Bobby Wratten’s band. “Correspondence” will be the last EP from this British group that has so populated our catalogue for these last years, so much so that they have become emblematic of our label. The “Correspondence” EP will be released in digital format and also as a limited-edition, orange 10” vinyl.

But we’re not going to lick our wounds; we’re going to cherish the joy that listening to these new songs brings us. The EP opens with a house specialty: a remix by Robert Hampson (one of Bobby Wratten’s biggest heroes, front man of bands like LOOP and MAIN) of the songs “Half-Light” and “Outside” (an instrumental version of “Outside Looking Elsewhere”), from their recent “Fast Trains and Telegraph Wires”, into one single song called, “The Light Outside”, and which makes the band’s passion for hazy, evanescent atmospheres clear. “Between Stations” is a brief instrumental piece where the more delicate, precious side of the Brits shines through. “Sunrise on Mars” is a true de [ Read more ]

Directed by Lluís Prieto (Llaüt Digital)

Click here to watch the video-clip of "Cold colours" http://www.youtube.com/watchcategoríav=-K3NZKNm7EI

Listen to the full album on:Spotifyhttp://open.spotify.com/album/1gqCt2JzlWeU5keaGp76tCDeezerhttp://www.deezer.com/music/trembling-blue-stars/fast-trains-and-telegraph-wires-648198categoríaprovider=website

iTuneshttp://itunes.apple.com/es/album/fast-trains-and-telegraph/id389407147

Already available on our Online store:http://www.elefant.com/shop/new-releases

Trembling Blue StarsFast Trains and Telegraph WiresER-1154 Doble-CD

Tracklist:CD1 Fast Trains and Telegraph Wires01.My Face For The World To See 02.All Our Tomorrows 03.In Arrivals 04.Frosting 05.The Imperfection Of Memory (vocals by Cath Carroll) 06.The Dark World Of The Broken 07.Cold Colours (backing vocals by Anne Mari) 08.Half- Light 09.Tropic Of Capricorn 10.The Last Four Winters Of The War/ Grey Silk Storm 11.The Hidden Quarter

CD2 Cicely Tonight Volume One01.The Floating World 02.The Lowest Arc (vocals by Anne Mari) 03.Radioactive Decay 04.Not For Second Prize (DREAM ACADEMY) 05.Outside 06.The Floating World (reprise) 07.No More Sad Songs (Hidden track)

After leaving the scene in 2005, Bobby Wratten’s band definitively stopped their activity, with an album that seems more like a miracle than a farewell. And that is because the songs on it melt between the fragile beauty and that magical melodic capacity belonging to the leader of unforget [ Read more ]

[Double CD [44 songs] Advance of the upcoming albums: LA CASA AZUL, HELEN LOVE, MODULAR, MILKYWAY… and exclusives tracks for this compilation: THE SCHOOL, FITNESS FOREVER, HELEN LOVE, GIORGO TUMA… ]

**Already available on our online store

Click here to listen to the album on SPOTIFY

Click here to listen to the album on DEEZER

iTunes

Welcome, everyone, to the first journey on the recently inaugurated Elefant Space Airlines! We invite all of you to enjoy some of the most incredible journeys currently available, on board our amazing new space-yacht, “Lula 1”, with everything necessary to make your experience unforgettable: a pool, a disco, a chill-out area, a high-end restaurant… The newest technology allows you to experience the most unbelievable things through the most distant planets in our Solar System, on which you can make friends while enjoying a fresh, robotic coconut (and if you don’t want that, we’ll clone whatever you do want), relax gravity-free in our invisible-light with narcotic effects, enjoy the thousands of digitalized pleasures we have to offer (in this case, audio, but in other journeys you will also be able to enjoy the video format) or enjoy our superstratopheric music – calmly, in the lounge, dancing non-stop on the dance floor, or intensely at a concert. Follow us on any of your devices; we assure you that the coming meetings will be of great interest.

This trip, the first of many that will take you to all [ Read more ]

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!

This video shows some of our best moments in 2010. We hope you like it!

Click HERE to watch the video-clip of Elefant Moments 2010  [ Read more ]

Tracklist:CD1 Fast Trains and Telegraph Wires 01.My Face For The World To See 02.All Our Tomorrows 03.In Arrivals 04.Frosting 05.The Imperfection Of Memory (vocals by Cath Carroll) 06.The Dark World Of The Broken 07.Cold Colours (backing vocals by Anne Mari) 08.Half-Light 09.Tropic Of Capricorn 10.The Last Four Winters Of The War/ Grey Silk Storm 11.The Hidden Quarter

CD2 Cicely Tonight Volume One 01.The Floating World 02.The Lowest Arc (vocals by Anne Mari) 03.Radioactive Decay 04.Not For Second Prize (DREAM ACADEMY cover) 05.Outside 06.The Floating World (reprise) 07.No More Sad Songs (Hidden track)

It’s a bit curious, poetic and marvelous that the hidden track on “Cicely Tonight Volume One”, the EP that comes with TREMBLING BLUE STARS seventh disc, is that final declaration called “No More Sad Songs”. A great truth is hidden behind it, painful and chilling. After leaving the scene in 2005, Bobby Wratten’s band definitively stopped their activity, with an album that seems more like a miracle than a farewell. And that is because the songs on it melt between the fragile beauty and that magical melodic capacity belonging to the leader of unforgettable bands like THE FIELD MICE and NORTHERN PICTURE LIBRARY (who are more vindicated and adored every day by the new wave of indie groups all over the world, from THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART to PAPA TOPO), rebelling against the evanescence of the flame while throwing its life force into the [ Read more ]

Hello Everyone!Another year has passed, a special year for us as we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the label, and we did it the best way we know how: releasing a ton of good music. We put out 22 new releases in total – 13 albums and 9 singles. It was an intense year in every way it could be and a year in which a little bit of everything that can happen, happened. And despite all of the problems that the music world is going through we managed to survive another year and we are full of hope and excitement about 2010.

We are aware of the requests and the things that fans of the label are most worried about and we are working hard on all of it in order to try to have everything organized and updated in the first few months of the new year, so that it is easier to be up to date with everything that’s happening with our groups and our label. We’ve been working on the new Elefant website for the last few weeks, a new website that will maintain a similar design to the old website, but that will be much easier to use, much more intuitive, faster, and clearer. Yes, we are getting rid of Real Audio and you’ll be able to listen to the songs without having a player installed, and you’ll be able to change quickly and simply from the site in Spanish to the site in English from any page. We’re also going to have our new Elefant On-line store with great improvements. We’re closing deals to be able to have the entire catalog available on Spoti [ Read more ]

Here at Elefant Records we are thrilled by the initiative of the label American Dust – they’ve just released “Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill”. It is an homage to one of our favorite artists, who recorded only two albums in her life. A double CD of rare songs released was recently released, which included the demos of her uncompleted third disc, due to the artist’s untimely and unfortunate overdose at the age of 35. The beauty of her voice, the acoustic arrangements which, thanks to Graham Nash’s production, were so perfected, completely dazzled us from the very first second, as they did David Geffen, who made her his first signed artist for his legendary Asylum label, in the early 70s. With artists like Warren Zevon and FLEET FOXES doing versions of her work, the moment has come for this long-overdue tribute, with an album that includes the collaboration of artists like Beth Orton, Ron Sexsmith, FINAL FANTASY, Meg Baird, Bill Callahan and, especially, our beloved TREMBLING BLUE STARS. Bobby Wratten’s band fits their version of “Lady-O” like a glove; the song was Judee Sill’s first hit and at the time was sold to THE TURTLES. And as if we could expect anything less, the collaboration of the Brits is the highest example to follow for their excitement, precision, melancholy and evocativeness. Have we already mentioned how excited we arecategoríacategoríacategoría [ Read more ]

It has been almost two years since we have had any news about new songs from Bobby Wratten and his crew, but now it’s time to celebrate because, throughout the month of October, the DJ Mark Whitby will be playing the acoustic demos of the three new songs that will be included on the Brits’ new album. They are compositions that reveal the most emotional, fragile and delicate part of the band that made melancholy an art: “Frosting” is like an ode to rain, with a note dedicated to each raindrop’s journey from the sky to the ground; “Tropic of Capricorn” shows the most pop facet of the band, with their unmistakable chords and celestial harmonies, while on “The Imperfection of Memory” we find ourselves in Beth’s voice, on the most precious and naïve song of the ones that they’ve advanced so far, with another unforgettable melody.

These songs will be played in the first part of Mark’s program, within the radio’s exclusive Internet broadcast Dandelion Radio, a media inspired in the figure of John Peel, with independence and originality as the primary motivation. In the following link you can see the broadcast calendar for October: http://www.dandelionradio.com/schedule.htm. All you have to do is look for the spaces where it says “Mark W 1” to find out what days and times you have to listen to hear the new songs from TREMBLING BLUE STARS. Remember, these are the acoustic demos that are cu [ Read more ]

"The last holy writer" -the sixth album by TREMBLING BLUE STARS, the second one to be released worldwide through Elefant Records- is the proof that one of the most influential bands in indie-pop is at its most creative, daring and inspired, now more concentrated than ever in writing the most beautiful pop songs you’ve heard for ages. On this sixth long-player, Bobby Wratten‘s writing climbs to its highest peaks, free of any stylistic ties and ready to explore new territories, without leaving aside his sensitive ambient-pop, evocative melodies and the eternal reference to the sound of the early 80’s/ post punk. The album has received excellent reviews worldwide, and it is doing very well everywhere, specially in France, USA, Great Britain and Germany.

The stand alone "Exploring the shadows" EP features, as always, many previously unreleased tracks. Both in its CD and 7" formats, this EP is again a deliberate attempt by the band to stand up for the single in an age when they can be little more than trailers for the album, which is seen as the main event. We think that, in the age of the internet and digital downloads, it’s the song that is important again; and we have always loved singles anyway, so this release is for us as dear as the forthcoming album (to be released by the end of April). So, the "Exploring the shadows" EP features on its CD format four exclusive songs that were recorded as part of the album sessions [ Read more ]

The press reaction to the new album by British band TREMBLING BLUE STARS is really enthusiastic. Raving reviews follow each other all over the world, specially in the UK, France and the USA.

+ Press [ Read more ]

We can announce the release of "The last holy writer", the sixth album (the second released exclusively worldwide through Elefant Records) by Bobby Wratten‘s band.Twelve songs that are the living proof that their being away from the stages has only made them focus even more on their inspiration, concentration and creativity. The album, which will be released at the end of April, features some of the most daring and experimental moments in the band’s career so far, without leaving aside, of course, their characteristically dark, melancholic sound, and the influences that range from shoegaze to 80’s afterpunk. [ Read more ]