NEW TRACK FOR ASYLUM COMPILATION ALBUM

There are certain albums you remember buying, even after many years. Asylum is one of those albums in my collection. I bought this in June 1986 after I saw the Dots live in Arnhem. Even thought I had read about the Dots before, and had seen some of their cassettes on sale at the Ding Dong record store, I never heard their music. The performance was captivating. In fact, so captivating that the next day I went into town, went to the first record store I knew, took out the first album by the Dots I saw (Asylum), played it, recognized the first track on that album (Echo Police) from the live show, bought the album and started what seems to be a life-long connection with the Dots and their music. OK, so much for the introduction, on to the show…

A few months ago, Jef Benech of Mecapop records, contacted me about a compilation he wanted to do. We had worked together before, on his brilliant re-release of The Terminal Kaleidoscope, a live CD by Attrition and The Legendary Pink Dots. To celebrate 30 years of Asylum, Jef wanted to do a homage to the album inviting several artists to record cover versions (not ‘interpretations’) of tracks from Asylum. Was I interested, he checked. Were ducks yellow (I’m talking about ducks in children’s books here – not the real ones)? Sure, I was game. He then told me he had Golden Dawn for me in mind to cover. Talk about serendipity: my favourite track from the album! So I set to work and recorded what came out as a jazzy/bossa nova version of the song of which I am actually quite proud. The track will be released sometime soon on the compilation album “A place to escape from. A place to escape to” (the original subtitle of Asylum). With artwork by Stephan Barberi, who also did the original cover, it should be quite something!