Robert Forster

Great, deeply inspired music sometimes comes about quite unexpectedly - in really difficult times, but sometimes also in times of great satisfaction.
In 2021, Robert Forster had completed a series of songs that he had written over the past three years. These were to form the basis of his new album. The songs were strong and emotional, as if they had been cast from a single mold. Even the author was surprised: they offered a new perspective, were more personal and told of the people closest to him.
There was another song fragment - just music and melody, still without lyrics. As Robert was working on his first novel at the same time, there was no rush. The new songs could wait a while longer.

But life suddenly presented him with completely new challenges: In July 2021, Robert's wife Karin Bäumler, with whom he also makes music, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. And so hospital, tests and chemotherapy were first on the agenda. An intense time full of fear and hope.
As so often in their 32-year relationship, music was their rock, their refuge.
Time was precious. The songs were recorded quickly in the Achemix studio in Brisbane, without headphones, without overdubs, all together in one room, with eye contact.
When we listened to the songs recorded that day, two of them already seemed finished to Karin and me in this raw version. We asked ourselves whether we could record a whole album this way?"
After a medical procedure in October 2021, Karin continued to record for as long as her health allowed, sometimes just one or two days a month. The joy and strength she drew from the music was priceless, and shortly after finishing chemotherapy in March 2022, Karin was able to complete the recordings.

Some people will listen to the new album and think that songs like It's Only Poison ("The body is a temple/The mind is a box/Your heart is like a river that no one can stop") and Always ("Time moves in one direction/And there's been a breakdown at the intersection out on Highway 5") must have been written after Karin's diagnosis. But that's not true.
Not even Tender Years, one of the greatest love songs Robert has written in his entire career, which has now spanned nine studio albums with the Go-Betweens and seven solo albums.