aaamusic | On 07, Mar 2011

Blackfield is the acclaimed collaboration between Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree) and Israeli artist Aviv Geffen. The duo return with their third album Welcome To My DNA which is released on Kscope in March 2011. Formed after a meeting in 2000, the partnership blossomed into a cross-cultural collaboration that has already spawned two albums (2004’s Blackfield and 2007’s Blackfield II).

The duo will also be touring to support the release of the album with dates so far confirmed in UK, Holland, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium and France with American dates still to be announced. These will be the first dates they have played together as Blackfield for over three years, due to both artists’ recent hectic schedules.

Porcupine Tree’s 2009 release, The Incident, is the band’s bestselling album to date, reaching the top 30 in both the UK and USA, and the band has continued to raise its profile around the world, recently playing sold out gigs at London’s Royal Albert Hall and New York’s Radio City Music Hall. In addition to Porcupine Tree and Blackfield, Steven also records as a solo artist and is a Grammy nominated producer and mixer, working with the likes of Opeth, King Crimson, and Yoko Ono.  He also co-wrote and sang a song on the recent UK number one album by Pendulum.

In 2009, Aviv released his first English language solo album (produced by Trevor Horn) and has supported U2 and Placebo. The son of esteemed Israeli poet Yehonatan Geffen and the nephew of Moshe Dayan, Geffen is Israel’s leading counter-culture rock musician. A huge star in his native country, his records have been greeted with critical adulation, earning him a string of gold albums. An outspoken peace campaigner, he controversially refused to do compulsory military service, and his lyrics have been fiercely critical of the Israeli military and their actions.

Aviv has worked with various artists throughout his career, including Brett Anderson (Suede), Mercury Rev and Belle and Sebastian, but it has been his partnership with Steven that has proved the most fertile, and both artists have been keen to return to their work with Blackfield and have been working on the album for the last few months. Aviv explains, ‘we made the album together, it wasn’t an email album. Steven came to Israel and I came to London. We both had a great year, Steven with Porcupine Tree and me with my solo stuff but now it’s a Blackfield year and we are both ready for it.’

He goes onto describe Welcome To My DNA as ‘an album about loneliness and sadness. There are many songs about love, god… the same subjects that Blackfield have dealt with before.’ Musically the album builds on the established Blackfield sound, described by Clash as ‘a lush but soulful mix of separate cultures, deep sounds and touching lyrics,’ and the results have lead Aviv to state ‘I believe it’s our best work so far and I’m really excited about going on stage with this album.’

UK Tour Dates are:

6th April Leamington, Assembly
7th April Manchester, Academy 2
8th April London, Shepherd’s Bush Empire