Blackfield

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Blackfield
Background information
Origin	England & Israel
Genres	Art rock Alternative rock
Years active	2001-present
Labels	Atlantic Records Snapper Music
Associated acts	Porcupine Tree Aviv Geffen
Website	www.blackfield.org
Members
Steven Wilson Aviv Geffen Seffy Efrati Tomer Z Eran Mitelman
Former members
Chris Maitland Daniel Salomon

Blackfield is a collaboratory musical group between Porcupine Tree founder and lead singer Steven Wilson and Israeli rock singer Aviv Geffen.

History

Geffen, a fan of Porcupine Tree and Wilson, invited the band to play shows in Israel in 2000. He struck up a friendship with Wilson, leading to the two musicians recording together (for example with Geffen's singing backing vocals on Porcupine Tree's In Absentia album). Originally planned as an EP for a 2001 release, the band's debut album blossomed into a full-length recording, and was released in Israel and Europe in 2004, and the United States in 2005. In early 2004 the band debuted live on a couple of promotional TV performances in Israel. This line-up featured drummer Chris Maitland (drummer of Porcupine Tree from 1993 to 2002), who was replaced by Tomer Zidkyahu, brother of Nir Zidkyahu (former touring member of Genesis) for a European tour that followed in the Autumn of 2004.

Apart from seven original songs, the band also covered three of Geffen's earlier songs ("Scars", "Cloudy Now" and "Glow" <not recorded solo by Geffen until 2006 but performed often during his concerts>, translated into English by Wilson), and Porcupine Tree's "Feel So Low", with Geffen singing the first verse in Hebrew (he had been performing this song during his live shows).

Wilson and Geffen recently recorded a follow up album, Blackfield II, released in February 2007 in Europe and March 2007 in the United States. In 2007, keyboardist Daniel Salomon left the band to continue his successful solo career. Salomon was replaced by Eran Mitelman, former keyboardist for popular Israeli hard rock band HaYehudim.

In January 2009 Geffen went on a small tour of Europe with the full Blackfield live band (including Wilson billed as a special guest). Half of he set consisted of songs from the then yet to be released first English language solo album by Geffen while the rest was a selection of Blackfield songs. Wilson appears on two tracks from the Aviv Geffen album.

2008 to present

In a recent interview in 2008 Steven Wilson discussed Blackfield's future:^[1]

"I think we’re going to tentatively start working on some new songs and that’s as far as we’ve got regarding planning. I think there almost certainly will be another record. As with No-Man and my other projects, there’s no reason to stop doing them as long as the music keeps flowing."

Band Members

Line-Up

• Steven Wilson – lead vocals, lead guitar, additional keyboards (2001–present)
• Aviv Geffen – lead vocals, guitars, rhythm guitar, keyboards (2001–present)
• Seffy Efrati – backing vocals, bass guitar (2004–present)
• Eran Mitelman – backing vocals, piano, keyboards (2007–present)
• Tomer Z – drums, percussion (2004–present)

Former Members

• Daniel Salomon – backing vocals, piano, keyboards (2004–2007)
• Chris Maitland – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2001–2004)

Discography

Studio Albums

DVDs

Singles

References

1. ^ http://www.innerviews.org/inner/noman2.html

External links

• Blackfield - official website
• Blackfield at last.fm
• Blackfield at MySpace Music
• The Seaweed Farm - Blackfield / Steven Wilson related news