Chabliz - Nightporter

Take me back, take me way way way back... a band tuning up... a piano playing distant fragments of Leonard Cohen's "I'm Your Man"... the first glimpses of an ensemble tuning up in Berlin in the 1920s. A dark and smokey bar... in the backroom of a large, yet slightly dusty hotel that once had seen grander days... an overtired nightporter doesnt even really notice you when you get in. On stage a chanteuse sings German-language chansons and songs about a long forgotten time that possibly has never existed. You sit down at a table and light a cigarrete and order a glass of French wine. Smokey, velvet curtains.. the warmth of the wine kicks in... and the music of The Hague based band Chabliz takes you away... on the wings of dark and brooding, melancholic songs you drift away on a journey to a place where melancholy is a resort for lost dreams.

Some compositions are originals, some in English, others in German, which go along perfectly with the overall German theater music Weill-like style of the album. Other songs are cover versions, very fitting to the overall feel of the album is Randy Newman's "In Germany Before The War", and there's of course a rendition of a Weill song, "Moon Of Alabama". Chabliz also included their interpretation of a Van Dyke Parks-song, "An Invitation To Sin", which has an especially decadent feel in the context of the overall atmosphere of the album. The sound of the album's arrangements is inspired a lot by the producer's love for Van Dyke Parks' music. The influence is especially prominent in the sound of the background choirs, who perform very Parksian glissandos. Disciples of Parks and Weill and Newman exploring the sound of a night out in a smokey bar in the 1920s? If you like that idea, you should have a look at the Chabliz website, where the band distributes it self-published album "Nightporter": www.chabliz.com.