Members: Duncan Forrester, Robert Forrester, Stephen Whitfield

Western Electric Sound System have always been more interested in creating soundscapes and emotional colour than formulaic songwriting. The spacious musicality of albums like Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden or Nick Cave’s Push the Sky Away have been the touchstones for this new collaboration between Stephen Whitfield (keys/vocals), Robert Forrester (guitars) and Duncan Forrester (drums/percussion).

As Rob Forrester said: “‘Rehearsals’ were like playing a live score to a silent movie — hours of improvised and instinctive instrumental threads and genre-crossing tangents — then, all of a sudden vocal lines, lyrics… songs began to emerge.” In the spirit of “seeing where we end up” and tipping a nod to the wisdom of Neil Young and Nick Cave, these songs have been treated like unbroken horses, allowed to run wild and never looked directly in the eye. Played live, new versions are always threatening to break free.

Biography

Rob and Duncan Forrester were founding members of early 90s band ‘This Picture’, releasing two albums on RCA/Dedicated and touring extensively in the US and Europe. Record of the week on Radio1, ‘Naked Rain’ was also a number one single on the American College Radio chart. Stephen Whitfield has played piano in a number of bands, most notably with Duncan Forrester in Bell Jar, releasing three albums and two Eps through ffg in their 10 years together.