57 stars of the air almanac by stephenhero

One day?

In 1999 Patrick moved from London to the Irish wilds of Connemara to purify his soul and pursue the heart of noise. Here he wrote and recorded the first two stephenhero records and released them on his own Ragoora Records. 'Landed' was released in 2000 and 'Lullaby' in 2001. These took the bare bones of KOD's songwriting hallmarks and moulded them anew with drum machines, samplers and, of course, effected guitars. His themes moved from an isolated urban anger to a search for new shores, away from a world that had merely shrugged rather than fallen truly in love.

In 2002 came 'Darkness and the Day' a full-length album on Artful Records. Here were 13 intentionally pop and populist songs that featured once more the dulcet tones of David McAlmont along with American friend and cohort Mark Mulcahy.

Inbetween there were explorations in theatre and film music. Firstly, Patrick collaborated with Welsh experimentalists Volcano Theatre and scored two shows. He then co-wrote and performed in Volcano's 'This Imaginary Woman' with Volcano founder Fern Smith. This was selected for inclusion in the month-long British Council showcase at the Edinburgh Festival 2003 and toured the UK, Ireland and Malta. He then scored an Irish play, Christian O'Reilly's 'The Good Father' produced for Druid Theatre Company by TONY award winning Garry Hynes, which received wide critical acclaim and toured Ireland to sold-out houses before being broadcast on RTE1. In film he scored maverick video director John Hardwick's debut full-length feature '33x around the sun' - an unworldly nightmarish update of Orpheus in the (East End) Underworld - before scoring Paul Catling's robot-sex film 'TOMO' which won Best International Short Film at Sundance 2004.

Now? Patrick is living in Manchester, England where he has written and recorded '57 stars of the air almanac'.

With this album, his first for five years, Patrick has spliced the trademark sound of Kitchens of Distinction with a new musicality garnered from his successful work in the Theatre and Film industries. Driven by the piano influences of 1970's Elton John, swept through and embellished with his own trademark acoustic/electric guitar sounds and lyrically continuing to explore Patrick's esoteric path of stellar interests, poetic references and dreamlike realities that have made him one of the UK's finest and most highly regarded independent songwriters, this album marks a truly welcome return to one of the UK's original maverick heroes.

Summer 2007

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