Tim Finn Reunites With Phil Manzanera

Split Enz’ Tim Finn has reunited with Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music for a new album ‘Caught By The Heart’.

Phil Manzanera produced the second Split Enz album ‘Second Thoughts’. ‘Second Thoughts’ gave Split Enz their first hit song ‘Late Last Night’.

Tim and Phil met in Sydney in 1975. Split Enz for the support act for Roxy Music’s Australian tour that year. Over the years they remained friends. Tim wrote songs for Phil’s K-Scope’ and ‘Southern Cross’ albums.

‘Caught By The Act’ features 10 songs covering multiple genres.

On collaborating with Tim, Phil Manzanera said: “It’s March 2020, lockdown has been announced in the UK and I am sitting looking at my screen saver on my computer, showing an island in the Pacific. Up pops an email from Tim asking if I have any ‘Latin Grooves’ By lucky happenstance, I did, as I’d been writing for a possible Latin music album. And from then our course was set. For the next 18 months, while the world was being pulled out of its familiar shape, Tim and I would be travelling, virtually, between New Zealand and the UK, backwards and forwards, through our respective days and nights, exchanging musical ideas and creating songs of every musical genre starting with those Latin grooves but with no particular destination other than doing good work.

“The first ten of the twenty-three songs we wrote are on this first album. It’s been therapeutic for me to have my mind engrossed in this creative process and to work again with Tim, one of the great singer songwriters. It has also been inspiring to have these talented musicians and friends accompanying us on this journey, they are truly our ‘Galleon of Stars.’

“For me, this is what a world music album is all about.”

On collaborating with Phil, Tim Finn said, “In March 2020, as NZ entered its first lockdown, I reached out to Phil in the UK and asked him if he had any slow Latin grooves I could work with. There’s always been something in the uplift and syncopation of this music, no matter how dark the times, that offers a refuge. We had worked before with musicians from Cuba and Columbia when I was based in the UK, and our project quickly fell into place once we began writing together again. Meanwhile the world was decelerating. And shrinking. A feeling of global interconnectedness was the one positive effect of the disturbing images we all saw in the early days of the pandemic. I wrote lyrics in Spanish and Italian. I wrote about Cuba where I had been in the 80’s after a Chilean musician had introduced me to salsa one night in Rome. Our daughter Elliot was home more than usual and ended up singing on the highly evocative instrumental tracks Phil was sending. I remember one night listening back to a new tune and watching my shadow dancing on the wall. I hope you feel as good as I did then when you hear them.”

Caught By The Heart tracklisting:

1. Mambo! Salsa!…
2. The Cry Of The Earth
3. Caught By The Heart
4. La Ruleta De La Fortuna
5. All That’s Human
6. Malecón
7. Bajo Luz Distinta
8. Galleon Of Stars
9. Vamos Despacio
10. La Musica Del Tiempo

Musicians:
Tim Finn: Vocals, keyboards, programming

Phil Manzanera: Guitars, keyboards, programming

Elliot Finn: Vocals

Harper Finn: backing Vocals on Malecón

Yaron Stavi: Bass, double bass
Israeli bass player who played with Berlin Philharmonic, Gilad Atzmon Orient Express, Robert Wyatt, David Gilmour, and all Phil’s albums for the last 10 years

Steve DiStanislao: Drums
Played with David Gilmour, Crosby Stills Nash, Don Felder, Joe Walsh, Kenny Loggins

Javier Weyler: Drums
Stereophonics, Phil Manzanera

Guy Pratt: Bass
Pink Floyd, David Gilmour, Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, Madonna, Rockonteurs podcast

Anna Phoebe: Violin
Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Oi Va Voi, Ian Anderson, Jon Lord, Roxy Music

Matteo Saggese: Piano
Zucchero, Phil Manzanera, Apollo 440

Frank Portaoundo: Bass
World renowned Cuban bass player from Santiago de Cuba

Mike Boddy: drum programming, engineering, mixing
Worked with Bryan Ferry, David Gilmour, Andy Mackay, Mumford & Sons, Billy Bragg, The Fall

Yazz Ahmed: Flugel Horn and treatments
Toshiko Akiyoshi, Rufus Reid, John Zorn, Ash Walker, the London Jazz Orchestra, Radiohead, Lee Perry, ABC, Joan as Police Woman.

João Mello: Sax
David Gilmour, Razorlight, Phil Manzanera

Corinna Hentchel: violin, viola
Gilad Atzmon &The Orient House Ensemble, recorded for Beatie Wolfe and plays in various orchestras including the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ann Masina: Vocals
Africa Sings Choral Society, Nico Malan Opera House (also known as Cape Town Opera House), double Grammy Award Winners Soweto Gospel Choir (SGC). She performed at the 46664 Concert at Hyde Park in London with the SGC as ambassadors for the late former South African President, Nelson Mandela.

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