london based alt-folk/pop band fanfarlo formed back in the year 2006 by multi-talented swedish musician simon balthazar (vocals, guitar, keys, mandolin, saxophone, clarinet, glockenspiel).  the band is rounded out by amos memon (drums, percussion, vocals), cathy lucas (violin, keys, mandolin, glockenspiel, vocals, saw), justin finch (bass, vocals) and leon beckenham (trumpet, keys, glockenspiel, melodica).

the band's name comes from charles baudelaire’s novella, “la fanfarlo.”  simon said that the name is "more of a reference to an interesting time and place more than to that particular book."

because of their full, lyrically rich, yet circus like sound it easy to recognize broken social scene, neutral milk hotel, belle & sebastian, and sufjan stevens as influences.

the band's first lp, reservoir released in the us september 29, 2009.  unfortunately for wednesday-music readers just learning about fanfarlo, until july 04, 2009, their album was available for download off of their website for $1.00.  sorry, it's my fault, i should have told you sooner.

anyway, their new video for their song "the walls are coming down" features escape artist roslyn walker performing harry houdini's  famous "hanging straitjacket escape; its pretty cool.  a bit more trivia, sigurrós, the woman who inspired the name of the band sigur rós appears on the cover of reservoir.

click here for an september 27, 2009 all things considered story.  click here for a july 13, 2009 world café segment recorded by wxpn.  click here for september 17, 2009 interview and set recorded by kcrw's morning becomes eclectic.  click here for a bunch of videos off their website.

check here to see if fanfarlo have any gigs scheduled near you.  consider yourself very lucky if they do.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.