Torsten-Interviews/reviews

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Channel 4 news interview and live footage

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Re: Torsten-Interviews/reviews

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Pughie wrote: Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:40 am Channel 4 news interview and live footage


Better quality on C4 site
https://www.channel4.com/news/erasure-f ... -the-stage
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Not to be biased but I’ve found this review which is not a very complimentary,but it needs to be seen.
I don’t agree with the contents.

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https://www.thereviewshub.com/queerteri ... re-london/
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A new interview as posted on FaceBook by

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Barney-

It’s a special joy to have the Torsten trilogy that I’ve worked so hard on written about in such informed terms in a respected Italian cultural journal. Thank you Amedit!

A translation of the article is below :-


A genderfluid icon, Torsten is a timeless character, in a constant swing between romanticism and transgression. With the ambitious Torsten project the British singer Andy Bell - historical leader of the synth-pop duo Erasure - inaugurated in 2014 a new phase of his career. The concept unfolds in three distinct albums, all made for the boutique SFE (Strike Force Entertainment) record label: ‘Torsten The Bareback Saint’ (presented in the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe), ‘Torsten The Beautiful Libertine’ (released March 4, 2016) and ‘Torsten in Queereteria’ (April 2019). Author of the texts and original creator of the project is Barney Ashton-Bullock, who said he had forged Torsten's writing on the figure and vocalism of Andy Bell from the beginning. The latter, having viewed the first drafts, immediately fell in love with the project, taking an active part in the laborious process of optimising the realisation of the character. All the music is worked out by Christopher Frost, who is also the curator of all the arrangements. Around the Torsten project rotates an operation that is both musical and theatrical.

The definition Andy Bell has given is: "a theatrical pop song-cycle of musical postcards from the hot spots of memory, from a semi-immortal polysexual sensualist's life", that is, a series of theatrical setting songs, musical postcards drawn from the hidden memory of a polysexual semi-immortal. Torsten is not a real character but rather an archetype, a now meaningful personification but also impalpable. We know little about him. He is the "saint without protection", the "beautiful libertine" who sacrificed his life on the altar of pleasure. In the introductory notes of the Torsten booklet ‘The Bareback Saint’ is Torsten himself writing to provide somewhat mysterious information about his identity: "I may be a carnal incarnate or the immanent unseen", that is: I could be either an incarnation or an invisible immanence. Torsten also warns not to look for a "consequential narrative", since the individual pieces, although linked by a concept, have an independent life.

This third chapter of the trilogy, recorded at Epsom's ‘Aramis Studios’, is divided into four acts. First Act: ‘Remembrance, Youth and Beauty’; Second Act: ‘Hedonism and Pain’; Third Act: ‘Bitter Regrets’; Fourth Act: ‘Cry and Lose’. Torsten - we read in the introductory notes of the booklet - is gently aged, but remains a semi-immortal, a sensual polysexual, crushed by the crushing pain of having lost lovers and friends. He was born in 1905, the son of a Norwegian merchant sailor and an English ship cleaner. Besides the intriguing ‘Queereteria’ (excerpt from the second act that gives the album its title), ‘Silence is Golden’, ‘Cabaret Awayday’ and ‘I Am Of The Sea’ stand out in particular. But, the highest moment, an inspired and poignant story and vocal, is ‘We Hadn’t Slept For Twenty Years’. The album was linked to the theatrical show "Queereteria TV" (staged at the Above The Stag Theatre in London from 10 to 28 April 2019). The impressive Torsten discography boasts 54 tracks in total: a composite itinerary that as a leitmotif follows a cabaret-style musical approach, open from time to time to more electronic interventions, and sometimes to more florid acoustic ones (and, incidentally, the incursions into the dance are not missing).

‪Andy Bell, more than ever in this role of a revived and unpunished Dorian Gray, shows off an absolutely superb voice. The three chapters of Torsten complement each other, but it is perhaps more in the second album, Torsten The Beautiful Libertine’ that the best songs appear: ‘This Town Needs Jesus’, ‘Blowjobs For Cocaine’, ‘Photos Of Daniel’, ‘I Am The Boy Who Smiled At You’ and the very delicate ‘I'm Your Lover’. Torsten leads a lonely and unhappy existence, but he still loves and loves, despite everything. He loved men and women, without distinction, without complaint. It is acted as if by the demon of sex, for better or for worse, as one can only lead a life always in the balance between delirium and passivity. Asked by a journalist if Torsten will ever find true love, his alter ego Andy Bell replied: "I don't know this, but I hope so. Even though I believe he needs to meet a vampire!” Torsten recalls encounters and establishes new ones, moving from story to story, from bed to bed, between melancholy and lightness, turning pages of a life that becomes individual, yet universal. The autobiographical component undoubtedly exists, but goes beyond the simple level of narrated anecdote by settling on a more symbolic experiential level. Two remixed versions of the first two albums have also been made, entitled Variance I and Variance II (with extra tracks, extended and alternative versions).‬

So, the Torsten trilogy marked a turning point in the musical career of Andy Bell, who also continues the Erasure project with Vince Clarke. The Torsten albums - Three unusual discs, as captivating in their themes as in their arrangements, but supported above all by an inspired and participatory interpretation by Andy Bell whose voice, full-bodied and atmospheric, gives his best here. Latest album ‘Torsten in Queereteria’ is available in standard CD and in a deluxe digipack limited edition book with exclusive photos, poetry and a bonus remix track by electronic pop God’s Bronski Beat!


https://amedit.me/2019/03/23/torsten-in ... i-torsten/
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Re: Torsten-Interviews/reviews

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Andy will be in next weeks Graham Norton Show BBC Radio 2 Saturday 22nd June talking about Torsten In Queereteria amongst other things
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Re: Torsten-Interviews/reviews

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Quite a late review posted up by Barney on FB

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https://www.clusterview.com/queereteeria-tv/
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Re: Torsten-Interviews/reviews

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A great new Barney interview about the Torsten Trilogy.

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