Trifecta, the musical collaboration between singer/bass player Nick Beggs, keyboardist Adam Holzman and drummer Craig Blundell, has a new album out in The New Normal and alongside it a new single and video taken from it in ‘Stroboscopic Fennel’.
Guided by what some might describe as an uncontainable brilliance and bravado, ‘Stroboscopic Fennel‘ is a fine example of the album’s many twists and turns, practically laughing at any notion of genre or boundary.
Speaking about the new video, lyricist and songwriter Nick Beggs said “In a post-apocalyptic world it won’t be only our vegetables that glow in the dark. So I thought I’d offer a handy recipe to help the few survivors cope with the last days of running the house. Add salt to taste.”
It’s often said that the greatest musical groups are the ones with the right mixture of ideas, talent and chemistry. These are things Trifecta have in abundance, the members having spent their most recent years touring some of the world’s biggest stages as part of many band, including Steven Wilson. It was from that later configuration that they decided to form a largely instrumental offshoot as a trio, eventually writing and releasing 2021’s Fragments, their debut album, where they were already off to a head start, with a tangible sense of creative familiarity.
For listeners seeking to escape the confines of the normal world, The New Normal will enable a window into vistas in a multitude of sonics and in concept. By combining elements of progressive rock, jazz fusion, all with a dash of typical English wit, the band bring the listener into a world where “sound is malleable, time is a mere concept and vegetables have otherworldly properties like the ‘Stroboscopic Fennel’”.
The New Normal features 19 tracks, the band building upon the innovative ambition and genre-hopping skulduggery they introduced themselves to the world with on Fragments. The new album could easily have carried on in that same direction and comfortably delighted fans of all three musicians, as well as their associated projects, but the trio were bursting with ideas of every kind, resulting in what’s been described as “many twists and turns”, where they are “practically laughing at any notion of genre or boundary”.
The releases follow previous single out in ‘Once Around The Sun With You’ featuring Rush and Envy Of None‘s Alex Lifeson on additional guitar. The track was the third single to be taken from the band’s new album The New Normal, out now on Kscope (Also home to The Pineapple Thief, Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree etc).
Lyricist and singer Nick Beggs revealed just how personal the song is to him: “’Once Around The Sun With You’ is an anniversary song written for my wife in commemoration of all the years she’s put up with me. Need I say more. The woman is a saint.”
Speaking on the collaboration with Alex Lifeson, Beggs said: “Our history with Alex Lifeson goes back quite a few years to when Rush invited numbers of artists to rerecord an anniversary version of their classic album 2112. Steven Wilson and band rattled off a version of ‘The Twilight Zone’ one afternoon during sound check which was included on the final release.
“I also invited Alex to play guitars on The Mute Gods’ song ‘One Day’ so I guess it was only a question of time before he was asked to contribute to Trifecta too. I don’t like to bug him too much but if it’s a song I think he’ll enjoy I’ll inevitably send him a demo to gauge his response. He instantly related to ‘Once Around The Sun’ and added some wonderful guitar colour to the track.” You can stream/download the single by clicking here and check out the video right here at RAMzine.
A song that wasn’t actually intended to be released by Trifecta ended up as their last single, as Beggs explained: “Stupid Pop Song was written for my daughter Willow who had a band for a while and was looking for material. I wrote it in the car one day whilst thinking about her musical journey.
“It obviously has a different narrative and irony when sung by me which is what happened in the end owing to the fact her band split up. I played it to Craig and Adam who both thought it would work well for Trifecta, but at the time I was unsure. They kind of talked me round after playing with the arrangement in their studios. I think it worked out rather well.” You can stream/download that single here and check out and check out the animated video for it – created by Willow Beggs – here at RAMzine.
Joining the trio is Alex Lifeson (Rush, Envy Of None) for additional guitar on new single ‘Once Around The Sun With You’ and Theo Travis (Steven Wilson) on the saxophone for insectoid grooves of ‘Daddy Long Legs’. And, it should be noted, John Paul Jones’ very own chapman stick from 1979 was sent to Beggs and used to record ‘The New Normal’.
The album was apparently recorded in the Bermuda Triangle of normality that is Leighton Buzzard, Bedford and New York between 2019 and 2023, engineered by the band and mastered by Andy VanDette (Beastie Boys, Rush, Whitney Houston), featuring artwork that was inspired by an original idea from Hajo Muller.
Available on limited edition as white 2 LP, CD , 2 LP and digitally, you can order it by clicking here.
