Faustus: new album and tour from the award-winning supergroup

Album release: Broken Down Gentlemen by Faustus
Release date: 11 March
Label: Navigator Records
Album tour: 11-27 April 2013 – including The Green Note, London 
Listen: on official website 

‘Frill-free folk music, superbly and tastefully performed . . . a folk essential’ **** Sunday Times
‘A considered album of exceptional class’ ***** Daily Telegraph

Nominated in the 2009 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, the Faustus triumvirate are three of the leading lights of English folk music of their generation: Saul Rose (Waterson:Carthy, Whapweasel), Benji Kirkpatrick (Seth Lakeman Band, Bellowhead) and Paul Sartin (Bellowhead, Belshazzar’s Feast).

Specialising in powerful delivery, faultless harmonies, inspired arrangements and a sprinkling of some of the earthiest songs in the folk cannon, they are men on a mission to banish all that is anodyne and fey in the delivery of folk music. Their plethora of experience is brought together in a virtuosic display of musicianship and testosterone.

Faustus came together in 2006 as an evolution of the award-winning band Dr. Faustus.  They made an eponymous debut album in 2008, produced by Stu Hanna (also of Megson) and released by Navigator Records, which saw them nominated as the Best Group in the 2009 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.  Subsequent touring saw them headlining at festivals, as well as playing sell-out concerts at arts centres and clubs.  Rooted deeply in the English tradition, in 2007 they received a 75th Anniversary Award from the English Folk Dance and Song Society.

The band members:

Benji: Scion of a noted folk dynasty, and very firmly rooted in the tradition, Benji Kirkpatrick is a key member of folk big band and BBC Award winners Bellowhead.  Member of the Seth Lakeman Band who shot to fame when 'Kitty Jay', featuring Benji, nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2005, Benji has also performed with numerous other noted artists including Oysterband, John Jones and Maddy Prior (Steeleye Span), and has found time to release three acclaimed solo albums.

Saul: Saul Rose was a long time member of Waterson:Carthy, winning two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards with the album 'Broken Ground' and forming a duo with Eliza Carthy.  The double album Red Rice, of which Saul was an integral part of the 'Rice' half, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 1998.  More recently Saul has joined Whapweasel, played in Ruth Notman's and Jim Moray’s bands, and re-launched his own duo with hammered dulcimer player, Maclaine Colston. In demand not only as a touring band member, but also an incredibly popular session musician, he has played on numerous albums, including Jackie Oates's album Hyperboreans, Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy's album The Gift and the soundtrack for the film Morris - A Life With Bells On. He was nominated for the Musician of The Year award in the 2010 BBC Folk Awards and in 2011 took the part of Songman in the West End play War Horse.

Paul: Paul Sartin is also a member of Bellowhead, as well as BBC Folk Award-nominated duo Belshazzar’s Feast and is a BASC nominated composer. He is Director of the Andover Museum Loft Singers, consultant for the charity Live Music Now and is a composer of note with recent works including The Hartlepool Monkey for Streetwise Opera, Anthony and Cleopatra for the Central School of Speech and Drama, and ‘Changing Landscapes’ for Broadstairs Folk Week.

In Autumn 2012 Faustus returned to touring after a two year break to enthusiastic reviews while simultaneously putting the finishing touches to a brand new album, working once again with producer Stu Hanna. 

March 2013 will see the release of the album Broken Down Gentlemen on Navigator Records followed by an album tour in April.  For full tour dates see the Faustus website.

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