TRANSCENDENCE SINGER ED HALE TALKS DEATH AND THE BAND’S NEW SINGLE “SOLARIS”

Out of the 11 songs on the new Ed Hale & the Transcendence album, All Your Heroes Become Villains, there are only 3 that offer any kind of hope, optimism, or hopefulness: track 3 entitled “Solaris,” track 6 “Here it Comes,” and the album closer “Last Stand at the Walls of Zion.” The rest of the album is a dark heavy brooding downward spiral into the lead character’s disillusionment with everything in the world and his own personal life. From the album’s trance-hop meets operatic opening — which starts with a slow dirge-like rhythm and then builds to a climactic crescendo of dissonance punctuated by two competing melodies played by a trombone and guest vocalist Dee Dee Wilde’s gorgeous gospel-tinged wailing — all the way through to the album’s closing track, All Your Heroes Become Villains feels and sounds like the perfect soundtrack to the end of the world.


Song by song the lead character vents his anger and disappointment with the society he lives in and his own personal life, aiming his rage at everything from the political system (“Blind Eye” and “We Are Columbine”) to God and religion (“Waiting for Godot”) to friendship and romance (“Indian Princess” and “Messed it Up Again”). The climax of the album is track #10, the majestic seven-minute ‘suicide letter in a song’ the band entitles “After Tomorrow” (already a favorite among adventurous college radio DJs) where it becomes clear that the lead character has had enough of blaming the world around him and has turned inward only to discover that he doesn’t have what it takes to continue any further in a world full of hate, war, disease, crime and betrayal.
And yet amongst all this drama and pathos there is the beauty and hopefulness of the song “Solaris.” In their traditional Britpop meets post-modern rock style, Ed Hale and company deliver a near perfect pop song clocking in at three minutes and thirty seconds that shines a bit of light on the stage of their apocalyptic rock opera. Sweet and tender and yet mysterious, “Solaris” seems at first to be a love song. But the female character being sung to doesn’t appear to even be alive, at least not alive in the traditional sense; on planet Earth. Rather, the lead character sounds as if he is singing to someone far removed from all his earthly troubles, someone who is far far away, living in another galaxy or star system called “Solaris.”
Lead singer Ed Hale summed it up this way, “A girl I knew, someone very close to me, had just passed away. And I found it impossible to deal with emotionally. Right around the same time, I had a chance to see the DVD of this beautiful movie called “Solaris” starring George Clooney. This movie is a trip. Very slow. You have to flow with it. It was based on the book by Stanislaw Lem. Seeing that movie hit me at the right time. I had my guitar with me of course and while I was watching the film I just started strumming these chords and creating this song about my friend… What I did really, was just place her, Julia, into the movie… in order to bring her back to life for myself. I just felt that because it was unbearable to contemplate her passing that at the very least I could make her alive in some other form, like she’s still living but in a different dimension. So the song “Solaris” is me, or the lead character of the album I guess, singing a prayer to her or for her, talking to her… asking her how she’s doing… like “how’s life in your new world Julia?” It made me feel better. And although it isn’t enough to keep the lead character alive by the end of the album, I think it gives him some hope along the way to his final decision… like that.”

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New album comes with a new name – Ed Hale and The Transcendence

New album comes with a new name – Ed Hale and The Transcendence

In anticipation of the brand new album, “All Your Heroes Become Villains,” the alternative rock band Transcendence has officially changed their name to Ed Hale and The Transcendence.
The name change took effect in their back catalog on retailers such as iTunesAmazon & across social media websites. One of the main reasons for this change is to help new fans of the prolific singer-songwriter Ed Hale connect with his body of work recorded by the group.
Some time has passed since the last Transcendence album, “Nothing Is Cohesive” was marked as one of the important breakthrough CDs of 2005 by tastemakers Hellfire. It was during this interim that Ed Hale’s passion for activism took him across the continents to help people, building houses in places like Colombia and Ghana. He also got married, wrote a book, starred in the Transcendent Television series, traveled to Iran as an ambassador, founded the Dying Van Gogh record label and somehow managed time to launch his solo career with the charming, acoustic “Ballad On Third Avenue” album and the hit single “I Walk Alone.” Other band members went on to form successful indie acts too, namely Ex Norwegian and Dreaming In Stereo. Now, the group Ed Hale and The Transcendence is back in action with a new album and fresh name.
Download an mp3 from the upcoming album “All Your Heroes Become Villains,” to be released September 20th on Dying Van Gogh Records.

NEW ALBUM COMES WITH A NEW NAME – ED HALE AND THE TRANSCENDENCE

In anticipation of the brand new album, “All Your Heroes Become Villains,” the alternative rock band Transcendence has officially changed their name to Ed Hale and The Transcendence.
The name change took effect in their back catalog on retailers such as iTunesAmazon & across social media websites. One of the main reasons for this change is to help new fans of the prolific singer-songwriter Ed Hale connect with his body of work recorded by the group.
Some time has passed since the last Transcendence album, “Nothing Is Cohesive” was marked as one of the important breakthrough CDs of 2005 by tastemakers Hellfire. It was during this interim that Ed Hale’s passion for activism took him across the continents to help people, building houses in places like Colombia and Ghana. He also got married, wrote a book, starred in the Transcendent Television series, traveled to Iran as an ambassador, founded the Dying Van Gogh record label and somehow managed time to launch his solo career with the charming, acoustic “Ballad On Third Avenue” album and the hit single “I Walk Alone.” Other band members went on to form successful indie acts too, namely Ex Norwegian and Dreaming In Stereo. Now, the group Ed Hale and The Transcendence is back in action with a new album and fresh name.
Download an mp3 from the upcoming album “All Your Heroes Become Villains,” to be released September 20th on Dying Van Gogh Records.

ED HALE’S NEW SOLO ALBUM RELEASED TODAY!

“Singer-songwriter Ed Hale, best known over the last few years as the lead singer for the Modern Rock/Brit Pop outfit Transcendence – who have scored numerous hit singles on radio, and in films, and television shows over the years – snuck into the recording studio late last year and produced the most personal and intimate album of his career. (With fellow Transcendence guitarist and Dreaming In Stereo frontman Fernando Perdomo playing engineer and co-producer). Rather than further exploring the seventy’s glam rock or indie rock or world music or Brit Pop that the band is famous for, Hale instead turned inward and turned the volume way, way down; creating a surprisingly quiet and simple yet moving and at times haunting acoustic pop album.”
“Gone are the pounding drums, squealing guitars, thumping bass and that Transcendence ‘wall of noise and sound.” Instead the album’s 11 tracks are a sparse and luxuriant tangle of acoustic guitars, pianos, organs, xylophones, lush cello lines, and mellotron flourishes that set a subtle, gorgeous sonic backdrop perfectly fit to back up a lyrically poignant and confessional masterpiece of infinite beauty and tenderness. The majestic acoustic-pop and vulnerable intimacy of Ed Hale’s new album Ballad On Third Avenue will feel right at home to the same crowd that loves the music of Wes Anderson films, Rubber Soul era Beatles, James Blunt, Kings of Convenience, Bright Eyes, David Gray, Simon and Garfunkel, or even Donovan or Nick Drake. From start to finish the deceptively simple collection of songs sucks you in and leaves you moved, smiling, and dreamy-eyed.”

:: To listen to all the songs or buy the CD click here to go to Amazon.com

:: To listen to all the songs or download the album click here to go to the iTunes Music Store.

 

TRACK LISTING

  1. SCENE IN SAN FRANCISCO
  2. I WALK ALONE
  3. HELLO MY DOVE
  4. INCOMPATIBLE
  5. BALLAD ON THIRD AVENUE (BEAUTIFUL LOSERS)
  6. IT FEELS TOO GOOD
  7. EVERYWHERE SHE IS THERE
  8. NEW ORLEANS DREAMS
  9. ARCHITECT’S DAUGHTER
  10. THOUGHTS OF CALIFORNIA
  11. NEVER LET ME GO AGAIN