Following the break-up of OMD around 1988, Paul Humphreys, Mal Holmes and Martin Cooper launched a new outfit called The Listening Pool. The emphasis on this new project was a delicate blend of electronics and acoustic instruments. A press release described The Listening Pool as having "captured the moody melodies of early Orchestral Manoevures In The Dark and combined it with their own distinctive sound".
Still Life was their debut album which was also released on the band's own label: Telegraph Records.
This album was also released on the band's own label Telegraph Records.
A lot of the material on this album had been in development for some years.
Blue Africa, Still Life, Breathless, Promised The World and Oil For The Lamps
Of China all dated back to at least 1990.
Among the songs dropped for the album were Rise Up, Golden Years, Satellite
Of Love and Next To You.
Oil For The Lamps Of China was the first single taken from the album. The track
was also mixed by Tom Lord Alge who had worked with OMD in the past, notably on
the single (Forever) Live And Die.
Breathless features backing vocals by Thomas Lang.
Somebody Somewhere features lead vocals by Paul Roberts - better known for
taking over Hugh Cornwell's place in The Stranglers.
Photograph Of You had originally been called Say Your Last Goodbyes. The song
ran into copyright problems because the song is structured around Harry Dean Stanton's
monologue from the film Paris Texas (1984). Because permission couldn't be obtained to
use Stanton's dialogue, the track was dropped from the original production run
of the album. However, to side step the copyright issue, the band employed Simon
Dutton to read the dialogue specially for the song.
Wild Strawberries was one of the earliest songs written and the song was actually
conceived when all 3 members were still in OMD. Wild Strawberries also features
Thomas Lang on lead vocals.
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