EUROTOPIA

ABOUT EUROTOPIA

Europe dominated the discourse of UK political life during the four years leading up to Eurotopia. The songs on these two albums were written in Europe between January 2015 and July 2019, and were located between places such as Porlock, Paris, Prague, Lemnos, St Pauli and Stalingrad.

Taken together, they provided an alternative perspective to those years of domestic flag-waving hysteria.

The eighteen songs were sometimes angry, sometimes affectionate and sometimes witty reflections on Robb's recent experiences of Europe's diverse realities.

They were peopled by workers, tourists, migrants, Edelweiss Pirates and terminal romantics. In Eurotopia, love songs — both tender and cheery — rubbed shoulders with hidden histories and contemporary tragic ballads, in settings ranging from folk and post-punk rock to chanson and jazz.

The vinyl version consisted of nine songs, with Robb's voice and guitar accompanied by the vocals of singer Fae Simon.

The thirteen songs on the CD version were recorded with The Irregulars. On this recording the band consisted of Robb's long-standing rhythm section of John Forrester on bass and Arvin Johnson on drums and percussion, augmented by Jenny Carr on piano, Linz Maesterosa on clarinet, flute and saxophone, Louise Michelle Shearer on tuba, Elona Hoover on cello, Bethan Prosser on violin, and Fae Simon on vocals.

Whether through the direct, pared-down performances of the vinyl version or the collective sound created by the musicians on the CD, the recordings represented some of Robb's most assured work up to that point.

Only four songs appeared on both albums, including Robb's most direct reference to Brexit, My Last Night in Montmartre, and the epic Welcome to the Museum, but they appeared in suitably different versions.

As for why two different albums were released with the same name in different formats, Robb's answer was characteristically simple: with Irregular Records, the point was to make art without merely aspiring to conformity.