‘From Here To Helsinki’ is the new album from Terefe/WhiteCross, a collection of ten timeless songs..which is just as well seeing as the album has taken ten years to come to light. It opens with the menacing, electro beats of ‘Even Giants Fall’ and engages the listener completely to its close with weary lament of the last track ‘Bedtime’. Highlights include the languid ‘The Collector’, a song that sounds like a quirky collaboration between Air and The Beatles, the gorgeously tender acoustic ballad ‘Sunshine’, the beautiful simplicity of ‘Whale Song’ and the soft reverberations of ‘Silent Protest Song’ that suddenly flare into driving bass lines and euphoric vocals.As only the second outing in more than 13 years from this songwriter duo, you can hardly call Terefe/Whitecross prolific. The one and only gig in Los Angeles in 1997 also seems like evidence of the bands deep reluctance to appear in public.Nick Whitecross (lead singer of Kissing The Pink and collaborator with Jem, X-press 2 and A-ha) and Martin Terefe (writer/producer known for his work with KT Tunstall, Ron Sexsmith, Cat Stevens, Jason Mraz and James Morrison) released ‘The Orange Album’ in 1996 and the follow up ‘From Here To Helsinki’ is finally being released in May, ten years after its inception.
The writing went on, the conference, the drinking, the walking. Leisurely guitar strumming at the end of each day became ten songs under the influence of Prague nightlife, religion and politics. After a week they went home with the songs ensconsed on Martin’s Psion. Back in London an album was recorded with Swedish producers Claes Bjorklund and Andreas Olsson.‘From Here To Helsinki’ will finally be released this spring and rumours of increased activity from the band are circulating…
‘From Here To Helsinki’ was written in a flat rented from the taxi driver who picked them up from the airport in Prague in the autumn of 1999. They’d record the songs on Martin’s little Psion organizer, which made them sound like grainy messages from space.
After a few days they read something in the newspaper about Forum 2000, the Chech president Vaclav Havel's think-tank for a better world, an annual conference held in Prague Castle, attended by such luminaries as The Dalai Lama, Bill Clinton, Shimon Perez, Peter Gabriel amongst others. They called the office, sent in their details and somehow became ‘observers’. They were amazed, and turned up outside the biggest medieval castle in the world, on a hill overlooking the River Vltava. Martin and Nick were given passes and folders full of information about globalisation and joined other 'observers' on a bank of seats at the end of a long skinny table, people they recognised, politicians, pundits and academics. At one juncture Martin made a point and there was silence. The point was digested and the discussion went on. At lunchtime they all walked into a high ceilinged room and ate food that they didn’t deserve. Interlopers on the world stage. It was brilliant, cheeky, fascinating.
The writing went on, the conference, the drinking, the walking. Leisurely guitar strumming at the end of each day became ten songs under the influence of Prague nightlife, religion and politics. After a week they went home with the songs ensconsed on Martin’s Psion. Back in London an album was recorded with Swedish producers Claes Bjorklund and Andreas Olsson.‘From Here To Helsinki’ will finally be released this spring and rumours of increased activity from the band are circulating…
