about AATT
& The House Of The Heart


DARK ORANGE is at present both a Hamburg/Germany and a Birmingham/England based band.  They were one of the first ..Heavenly Voices.. Bands from the cult label ..Hyperium.. in  the early 90s. After 15 years working on other projects, Katrin-Elna and Dirk Odu decided to make a reunion of Dark Orange in 2008 … and the Trees were a major part in this story.

Since their European Tour with the Trees back in 1992, Katrin und Dirk stayed in close relations with Justin, Steven, as well as Kirsten, spending days together in the old Holloway  Road flat in London, going out with Justin for a warm English beer, working together with former Trees member Marc Tibenham (as 24HOURS) and meeting the band on each of their tours.

It was towards the end of 2007 in Berlin, further to seeing the Trees on stage and a  conversation with Kirsten further on, which gave Dirk the idea and a kick to think about  working on Dark Orange once again.
To start with an interpretation of the Trees..The House of the Heart.. was a must-do as these  wonderful people and the band itself will have a house in Dark Orange's heart forever. Another reason to rework this song was Simon's vocal-melody which Katrin liked so much. Dirk and Olivier approached the song in the same way as they have done in their recent rework of older Dark Orange tracks, using the main chords and the vocal lines, as the core in order to produce the songs with a fresh angle still faithful to the original Dark Orange sound.

So they are here again. Starting with the interpretation of And Also The Trees' The House Of The Heart to say thanx to a band they have been carrying in their hearts for so many years now.

Dark Orange also have just finished recording a studio-session at the Schallzentrale Hamburg consisting of four other songs: ..memories…the fairy man.., ..clouds 4 winds.., ..dead! the witch.. and ..monkey business.. 

Current band members are Katrin Elna (vocals), Dirk Odu (guitars and programming), Olivier Goyet (programming and sounds), Michelle (bass-guitar) and Stephan (drums. Stephan also played the drums on the first Dark Orange album “Oleander”). 

For further information about Dark Orange, please visit:
http://www.myspace.com/darkorange

De Volanges

about AATT
& Missing

The basic idea was to come up with a cover of a recent song (in their « americana » style as we would call it), but play it in their early style. So we delved into « Angelfish », which happens to be one of our favourite albums. « Missing » stood out in the end for various reasons: a very open structure, the obsessive nature of the rythm, peculiar lyrics and the impression it leaves behind of a journey, making this piece akin to many last songs of AATT albums: a sort of opening towards
new, untrodden spaces.

What we did was simply indulge ourselves in hours of improvisation around the main themes of the song and around the unshakeable bass guitar line ... quite spontaneously, words from other songs emerged and stuck, reflecting a kind of flashback to the band..'s origins. So we ended up with something closer to an overall tribute to the magnificient music of the Trees, rather than strictly speaking a cover of a specific song.

What you get as a result is therefore a rather free and personal vision of ours, 
which we hope remains respectful to the original song ...

Babel 17

about AATT
& Twilights Pool (Electro Dub Mix)

I discovered this wonderful band in 1987, the «Millpond Years» era. I was listening to their 1st album (Twilights Pool, particularly ...), Virus Meadow & The Millpond years frequently ... Later on, the compilation «Et Aussi Les Arbres» was released on a new french label called Lively Art ... In fact, «Et Aussi Les Arbres» was the very first record that had been released on Lively Art (Arty 1 – LP, 1988). Babel 17 signed on Lively Art in 1989, and released 2 albums: «Celeano Fragments» (Arty 25, 1990) & «Shades» (Arty 34 , 1991). So, here is the link between B17 & AATT!

Last summer, I recorded 12 cover-songs of bands I love. At this time, I hadn't heard about the 'Beyond the Horizon' project. It was done when I received a mail from Jérôme Avril, telling he'd covered Anchor Yard for BTH ... I did a research to find out what was BTH about ... I didn't knew that so many people were still enjoying AATT, it was a good
surprise! Therefore I asked to join the project ...

... I worked on another version of Twilights Pool with Franck Meissonnier, my sound-engineer/producer. Twilights Pool is a unique AATT song ... They never went again in this musical direction, it's a rare black diamond ... We thought, after a few listenings, that there was some chemical-Dub accents on the AATT's original ... So we went into an Electro-Toxic-Dub direction, which keeps the original spirit of the song and Justin's guitar tunes while adding a crazy electronic climat, with groovy rythms, and strong basses.
The leitmotiv that lead us for this cover is a sentence extracted from the lyrics of the song:

« ... We seek a different view ... A world that's fresh & new ... »

And I hope it is ...

(Jean Franceschi)

Jean Franceschi: Voices, guitars, bass. (Recorded at B17 Studio)
Frank Meissonnier: Electronics & drums, additional instruments, mix. (Mixed at Blue Lotus Studio)

Magnetfisch

about AATT
& Roulette

We had been playing in our first band for half a year when in 1994 Patrick brought a copy of 'the Klaxon' for Timothée to listen. He liked it at once, particularly 'The Flatlands'. For him, the music of And Also The Trees remains tightly associated with the seemingly endless romantic landscapes surrounding his mother's house and it's pear tree...
We have had the opportunity to see AATT live on several occasions in Switzerland since, which undoubtedly continued to inspire and encourage us in playing music and developing our sound.

Why Roulette?

We appreciate 'Angelfish' very much, since the first AATT gig we saw was during the '96 tour. Patrick particularly likes the bass guitar in Roulette's instrumental refrain, and the dreamy, poetic lyrics were just ideal for Seline. Her voice during the chorus reminds me of Texas ('Summer Sun'), and she even added a trip hop-like singing. We all had a fast-paced, danceable version in mind when we began rehearsing for the Cover, and I played a speedy synthie bass inspired from the original. While electronic, our version of 'Roulette' is not industrial: yet the pizzicato-strings in the intro & outro are a hint at the song 'did you miss me' by fellow Swiss band 'The Young Gods' and hence at AATT/YG project 'November'.

Jerome Avril (Mary Goes Round)

about AATT &
Anchor Yard

We met And Also The Trees in November 1989 when we were offered the opportunity to support them during their tour in France. I didn't know much about AATT but at the end of the tour, I was a fan! And since this moment, AATT music has always been around me.

So I couldn't resist joining the AATT tribute when I was kindly asked to. Thinking about a song to cover, it had to come from "Farewell to the Shade" as this album immediately brings me back to the cherished times of the 89 tour. I decided to choose "Anchor Yard" mainly because I love this song but also because I quite immediately had a clear idea of how to make it sounds my way. I wanted to keep the atmosphere existing in the original song while flooding it with keyboards sequences, only playing one live guitar. And there it is!

Monica's Last Prayer

about AATT &
Brother Fear

My Eternal Thief

about AATT &
Talk Without Words

I discovered AATT in 1984 when they released their self-titled album.  The album quickly became the soundtrack for my daily trip to work (I still think of the bus journey through Eastern Sydney when I hear the album!) and it has stayed in my all time favourite albums list ever since, sharing top billing with Joy Division's Closer and The Comsat Angel's Sleep No More.  AATT impressed me on a number of levels – the quality of the song writing, the performances, the arrangements, the lyrics and of course those vocals!  These were people who clearly shone.

Although I have done the odd cover in the past, I have shied away from attempting AATT simply because of the sheer quality of the originals - for me, everything about the first AATT album works perfectly.  However, with the new My Eternal Thief project I wanted to visit some of the songs that have been important in my life, and I couldn't very well do that without paying homage to AATT - so the search was on to identify a song that I could "make my own".  It was always going to be either Silence, Talk Without Words, Midnight Garden or Out of the Moving Life of Circles.  For me, a cover version has to be respectful of the original intentions of the song, without being just a regurgitation of it (a copy always strikes me as something of a lazy insult – sort of "see, I can do it too" – what is the point!).  But most of all, it has to come out sounding as though it could have been a song that I wrote myself.  In the end, 'Talk Without Words' came quite easily to me and I ended up with something that portrays My Eternal Thief.  The intention is that this song will become part of a bigger MET project which will include an album of originals and an album of cover versions.
It has been a pleasure to visit the world of AATT and to ponder the music and lyrics from the perspective of a performance

David Quinn (April 2007)

When the idea of a tribute first came up on the fan mailing list, I knew I had to participate. I've been playing in a band, with three close friends for many years. They strangely never understood my passion for the trees, so I decided to do a solo version.

I'm not a singer. Because of that I wanted to do an instumental version!
In The Klaxon period some personal changes in my life took place and made that album very special for me. I was delighted when I discovered that the Klaxon Tour was comming to Copenhagen and I had the opportunity to hear and see them live. Bullet Head became the choice, although it's not a very typical And Also The Trees track. I knew I couldn't improve the song. So I tried to give it a more laidback attitude with Justin's guitar theme as the main ingredience.