Trust Fund

In the organizer's words:

Trust Fund, which is backed by British singer/songwriter Ellis Jones, is back with a new LP. The fifth album "Has It Been A While?" was recorded earlier this year in Sheffield with producer and close friend Joe Mackenzie Todd and will be released on November 1st on Tapete Records.

Fans of Jones' sensitive, witty and approachable songwriting have had to wait quite a while. His last album was released six years ago: "Bringing the Backline" received praise from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and The Guardian, among others, but Trust Fund was put on hold immediately afterwards as some band members started families and Jones moved to Norway (and then Canada) to pursue an academic career. Or as he puts it himself, "I turned 30, moved away and thought I'd probably leave it alone now".

Fortunately, he couldn't let it go. The realization that making music was not over after all came along with the development of a mature style. While early Trust Fund albums focused on a diffuse indie rock aesthetic, Jones reduces his songs on "Has It Been A While?" to classical guitar and vocals, supported by poignant string quartet arrangements by Maria Grig. What remains is the lyrical finesse of Trust Fund, which is particularly evident here in tracks such as "The Mirror" (a duet with Celia MacDougall from Radiant Heart), in which the boastful protagonist would all too gladly use the mirror as a TV.

Fans of 70s singer/songwriters, especially the first two Nick Drake albums produced by Joe Boyd, will discover a lot here, with the early folk-heavy material of Belle and Sebastian also an obvious reference. The title track is also reminiscent of the spirit and simplicity of Chet Baker's "I Get Along Without You Very Well".