Watch the video for the new Gramsci song "Ancient History"

Publish Date
Sunday, 7 June 2020, 10:28AM

This is the first new music from Gramsci in 15 years, with lead single "Ancient History" from the soon to be released album 'Inheritance' out now.

Unsurprisingly, musically prodigious NZ composer, singer, guitarist and Gramsci mainstay Paul McLaney, has spent the intervening years studiously. McLaney has long relished challenging himself artistically, and his discography is testament to an extremely diverse voyage of musical discovery over the years. Be it the classical folk stylings of ‘EDIN’, the ambient electronica of The Impending Adorations or the theatrical song settings of Shakespearean soliloquies, for McLaney it’s all been about the inspirational intertwining of musical and personal growth.

Now many inspired years on, all of those experiential threads are woven into the musical tapestry that is the new Gramsci album Inheritance, due for release on 26 June. The idea of a new Gramsci album came about as an epiphany to McLaney, where the sudden realisation that it needed to happen was concurrent with the understanding that it was already close to complete in his head.

"Ancient History", the first offering off the upcoming album, is a reflective and personal song about moving past regret and now living life with a daily grace, a time to put the past behind and move into the here and now.

Beautifully crafted, "Ancient History" is a soaring and moving listen as atmospheric guitars and thunderous drums combine with McLaney’s distinctive and emotive vocals.

The visually intriguing video accompanying "Ancient History" is compiled from an early experimental masterpiece ‘Ballet Mécanique’ (1923–24), a Dadaist post-Cubist art film conceived, written, and co-directed by the artist Fernand Léger in collaboration with the filmmaker Dudley Murphy (with cinematographic input from Man Ray).

The new album is the first to feature veteran, award-winning producer Greg Haver (Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia) and the live line up is completed with multi-instrumentalist Jol Mulholland (Gasoline Cowboy, Mulholland).

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