CasGreenfield

Casimir Greenfield

 

 

Gloucestershire based singer songwriter Casimir Greenfield released the new single, ‘Immortals’, on June 12th ahead of his forthcoming album ‘Boy In The Attic’ due in the autumn.

 

Cas recorded the album with the cream of local musicians at Ragged Moon Studios in Stroud and both the single and album will be released on the Ragged Moon label.

 

Cas has had a lifetime in music and recently a reel of archive recordings came to light, first committed to tape in the mid 1970s. Two of these songs have been re-mastered and augmented with new arrangements and vocals, with Cas accompanying his younger self on what is proving to be one of the longest recording sessions in pop music history.

 

Meanwhile, it is the single – ‘Immortals’ that will be in the spotlight on June the 12th. A song about hope in these often worrying times with the ultimate message that love is still what makes this amazing planet of ours go round!

With a video styled by acclaimed artist Ruben Ireland, ‘Immortals’ promises to be the surprise hit of the summer.

Cas was born at the end of the 1940s and began performing in the late 60s, with a career based in Europe where he supported artists such as Yes, Sparks, BB King. During that time he toured constantly throughout Europe, working solo and with his band.

 

A chance meeting with Keith Allen in 2012 brought Cas right back into the music scene. Cas and Keith wrote a few songs and performed just the once with Keith’s band. That was enough to unlock the latent song writing talent that had lain dormant in Cas for a long while.

 

Cas had been working on his painting and novels and out there in the real world making a way as a successful antique dealer and broadcaster. The songs that had served him so well as a younger man no longer seemed relevant until a new, fresh outpouring of lyric and melody coalesced into a handful of new songs, both fresh and age appropriate. And so, in the early spring of 2012 Cas returned to the studio and ‘A Twist Of Time’ was born.

 

The floodgates were open. Rare gigs, including a set as DJ and performer at Womad followed. Then came the birth of ‘Boy In The Attic’ – a concept album of sorts drawing in recordings from four decades, Cas harmonising with a younger self, working with current musicians, playing with time.

 

In the spring of 2013 work began in earnest on ‘Boy’. The recordings are now complete. Immortals is the first to emerge.

 

The story continues…

 

 

 

‘Immortals’ is the new single from Casimir Greenfield. ‘Immortals’ is taken from Cas’s forthcoming album ‘Boy In The Attic’ and is one of the most recent recordings from this extraordinary project.

 

‘Immortals’ is at once a celebratory song, a song of fear and dread, and ultimately, a song of hope.

Celebratory because Cas grew up in the era when love and peace seemed all we needed to save a world on the brink of madness. Much has changed and yet, perhaps, nothing has changed.

 

Fear and dread, for these are once more, much troubled times. Our aggressors are all around, hidden, unseen and without compassion, mercy or love.

 

Hope? Well, maybe, just maybe, love and peace really can save our world.

 

 

‘Immortals’ was indeed written in the early morning on the 'last cold day of winter'. The initial recordings were finished later that day and feature Cas on looped ‘stomp boot’, acoustic guitar, analogue synth and vocals. That was it! That was how we started.

 

Producer Mike later added bass to Cas’s analogue synth, together building up the layers with percussion and electro-handclaps. This version was duly mixed and subsequently merged with the original acoustic to form what became known as the Glasto DJ Mix as it was secretly debuted at one of the dance tents in that summer festival of 2014.

 

Early in 2015 it became clear that audience response to live outpourings of ‘Immortals’ indicated that this was a special song that resonated on many levels with the listener. A sure sign that an interesting and hooky track had been born. Thus Pete Rosser added piano and Cassius Frazer a dusting of banjo and with new, fresh vocals from Cas, with harmonies from Mike, the track was ready to hit the airwaves.

 

And so we have it. A ‘new’ song bursting out of its skin and ready to make its mark out there in the real world. Have a listen and judge for yourself.

 

Casimir Greenfield is a musician, author and broadcaster.

 

The new album 'Boy In The Attic' is due for a 2015 release' A Twist Of Time',  'Ghosts' and 'Five Seasons' are available now. The novel, 'Slow Poison' is available from Amazon.

 

To contact Cas: sarah@raggedmoon.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Immortals – words and music Casimir Greenfield

 

 

·    If World War Three is on the way there’s nowhere we can hide

·    La la las and pillow dark won’t help to stem the tide

·    So we try cling to something that nothing bad can change

·    That we lived our little lifetimes through a bright and golden age

 

 

·    And love, love – love hear my beating heart

 

·    We are like marble

·    We are like granite

·    We are like air

·    Like the sphere of a planet

·    Like the arc of a rainbow rising up to the sky

·    We are immortal and immortals never die.

 

 

·    And in this last cold day of winter at the keening of the knives

·    I give thanks to love and nature for keeping us alive

·    I don’t know where we’re headed before my soul takes flight

·    So let’s smash the walls of darkness down and step into the light

 

 

·    And love, love – love hear our beating hearts

 

 

·    We are like diamonds

·    The core of the sun

·    Like the stars in the heavens

·    We are second to none

·    Like the arc of a rainbow rising up to the sky

·    We are immortal and immortals never die.

 

·    And love, love – love hear my beating heart