Cas Bio

Casimir Greenfield

Cas was born at the end of the 1940s and began performing in the late 60s. From that time he toured constantly throughout Europe, working solo and with his band.

A well-known figure on the Dutch music scene in the 70s and 80s, Cas worked with artists as diverse as B.B. King, Yes, Sparks, Sonja Kristina, Kayak, Leonie Janssen, Frans Ehlhart, Herman Van Veen, Boudewijn de Groot and many others.

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