Felix NEill

This terrific BBC Session from the Marc Riley program is by Castles in Space favourite, Simon Break, aka, The European.

Break is a polymath, a boffin, a twisted genius and a uniquely 21st Century pop star. He designs his own instruments and software and (despite being seemingly based in L.A.) occupies a distinctly British space from which his songs of love, anger, heartbreak, frustration and resignation are transmitted to the world. He is a true artist and his album, "In A Very Real Sense Now" remains one of the highlights of the year so far. As stated in this BBC interview, he loves Nico and the Pet Shop Boys and comparisons to Colin Newman and Stephin Merritt seem particularly apposite. That's a heady mix of fantastic influences, no?

There's a great interview with him here and the Stolen Records page is here. Go and buy some stuff, why don't you?

The session features a preview of the title track from the next album "Universal Values" which is sounding really, really good. I got a bit choked, but it's very funny as well. This mix of pathos and humour is notoriously difficult to pull off, but it is a trick that The European executes with a beautiful precision time and again.

From The BBC 6 Music website:

"Simon has been producing and performing electronic dance, pop and experimental music since the early 90s as well as being involved in various projects across the fields of conceptual art, economic theory and software development.

"In the late 90s he recorded and performed with the ambient pop group PIANO MAGIC, before meeting musician and theorist Alexander Perls with whom he co-founded the international arts and policy group NATOARTS. Out of this collaboration was formed the electro-accoustic pop project ICEBREAKER INTERNATIONAL who released three critically acclaimed albums in the early 00s. Simon followed this with a number of releases under different names in the genres of deep house, experimental electronics and electro-pop. Throughout this entire period Simon has also maintained a business career taking in software design, economic forecasting and risk analysis."

Twits can follow Simon at http://twitter.com/simonbreak and for news and updates go to his website here. Watch the video for "The Settler" here.

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