Release Info:

Saline Grace is the new project of Ricardo Hoffmann, who is known as the composer and poet of the German avant-garde band Nobility Of Salt. Supported by his long-term bass player and companion through life, Ines Pollok, the amazing multi-instrumentalist and singer presents his first solo album, called “Border Town Shades”. Strongly influenced by the works of Dostoevsky, Kafka and Bukowski, Ricardo Hoffmann has written claustrophobicly profound songs about desperation and the blackest depths of misery, candle-lit rooms full of tragedies, forlorn sinners and deceptive roads which are surrounded by broken telegraph poles, low-hanging wires, sadness and peculiarly grown trees, leading into nowhere and failure. He also tells us about the human’s eternal yearning for deliverance and his hope for God’s doubtful mercy, presenting now with Saline Grace a 17-track-album of incredibly emotional depth. On “Border Town Shades” his extraordinarily filigree guitar style has been woven into antiques such as piano, organ, banjo and marimba, building up together with Ines Pollok’s powerful bass, admonishing bells and stylishly played drums a remarkable mixture of Americana, psychedelic and folklore of old Eastern Europe which creates an oppressively sinister atmosphere. Within the centre of this soundscape, in the tradition of Nick Cave, And Also The Trees, Woven Hand or Leonard Cohen stands ominously, full of urgency and often with amazing warmth the marvellously narrative voice of Ricardo Hoffmann, who, like creeping out of the human psyche’s repressed depths, sometimes supported by means of using choirs, knows to celebrate his fateful tales and philosophic poems. Indeed, with “Border Town Shades” Saline Grace seems to roam a sinister valley on a rain soaked, covered wagon whose wheels pass through that muddy soil, where Nick Cave once laid down the Carny’s old nag named Sorrow.

After a moment’s silence, Saline Grace are back with their latest album ‘Fog Mountain’ and an official video. During his parental leave, mastermind Ricardo Hoffmann made time for a short guest appearance, joining Ham-burg-based band Dark Orange on their latest 2CD album ‘Horizont’. Along with Steven Burrows, a member of Eng-lish cult band And Also The Trees, on bass, Ricardo Hoffmann contributed on additional guitars and piano. He furthermore created a remix for ‘Interpretations’, the second CD of the same release; other remixes were made by artists like Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins, members of And Also The Trees and many more. With ‘Fog Mountain’, however, Saline Grace continue on their very own paths, setting great store by the use of almost exclusively acoustic instruments that seem to hail from an antique musical instruments shop. The extra-ordinarily filigree guitar style with its wistful slide techniques, mandolin-like ornaments and fingerstyle parts is recognisably Ricardo Hoffmann’s, who knows to create pictorial synaesthesias, raising nightly panoramas from imaginatively enraptured roadmovies. Subtly woven into a dusty sound stage, mainly consisting of piano, organ, concertina, banjo, violin, accentuated drums, not uncommonly played with brushes, as well as Ines Hoffmann’s deeply resonating bass, the listener is inevitably getting entangled in a mystic and sinister atmosphere, drawing marvellously attention to singer, song-writer and multi-instrumentalist Ricardo Hoffmann’s emotional baritone. Among personal contents, his protagonists act full of symbolism in front of surreal, near-natural sceneries and re-flect frequently anthropological backgrounds, dealing with mankind’s estrangement from nature and within their artificial environment, their culture, too. Their new album shows Saline Grace more powerful and on their highest level, performing with virtuosity, vigorous dynamics and withdrawn melancholy at the same time. Indeed, ‘Fog Mountain’ impresses with diversity of its arrangements, variety of vocals and its uniquely captured atmosphere, captivating the listener not only by catchy melodies, but also by Ricardo Hoffmann’s distinctive voice, who conveys deep melancholy coupled with hidden rage, solitude and, in very few instances, hope as well.

For fans of And Also The Trees, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, The Doors and Wovenhand

Four years after their brilliant album ‘Fog Mountain’, Saline Grace are back with their third and latest album ‘Blacksmith’s Fire’ and an official video to their song ‘The Dream And The Wings’. Unfortunately, for family reasons co-founder and long-time bass player Ines Hoffmann could apply herself to the album and her instrument severely limited. If ‘Fog Mountain’ was strongly dominated by mystically threatening Americana- and Psychedelic sounds, Saline Grace present sophisticated and diverse arrangements without equal on ‘Blacksmith’s Fire’ releasing a tension-filled album as if made from one piece. As on their last albums, Saline Grace place value on their familiar, almost exclusively acoustic instruments, which in their interaction, strictly renounce modern styles of music creating a sound that seems to come from between the 1950s and the 1980s.
The extraordinarily filigree, not uncommonly classical guitar techniques and fingerstyle parts, the voluminous mandolin-like ornaments and Ennio Moriccone-like twang sounds are recognisably Ricardo Hoffmann’s, who knows to create pictorial synaesthesias raising nightly panoramas from imaginatively enraptured roadmovies or the imagery of wild and near-natural sceneries. Subtly woven into a fragile sound stage, mainly consisting of piano, organ, concertina, banjo, classical string arrangements as well as its deeply resonating bass and those jazzy drums, the listener is inevitably getting entangled in a sound experience that is drawing marvellously attention to singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ricardo Hoffmann’s emotional baritone, who is capable of mastering a falsetto, too. Hoffmann’s poetry struggles with the great issues of anthropological philosophy, where his protagonists act full of symbolism in front of surreal, near-natural sceneries. He questions the place of man in nature and the progressing estrangement in their artificial environment, their culture as well and quarrels with the all-embracing timeline in our human existence scrutinizing mankind’s forward- or backward-looking behaviour.
The new album shows Saline Grace powerful and on their highest level, performing with virtuosity, vigorous dynamics and haunting melancholy at the same time. Indeed, ‘Blacksmith’s Fire’ impresses with diversity of its arrangements, variety of vocals and its uniquely captured atmosphere, captivating the listener not only by wonderful melodies, but also by Ricardo Hoffmann’s distinctive voice, who conveys deep melancholy coupled with hidden rage, solitude and, in very few instances, hope as well.

For fans of And Also The Trees, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, The Doors, Calexico and Tindersticks

Two years after 'Der Meister der Intrige', the first release in German language, that was much politically motivated, the fourth Saline Grace-album, 'The Whispering Woods', has been released with English lyrics as usual and creates pictorial synaesthesias raising wild and near-natural sceneries of wide forests, barren wastelands and fathomless oceans.

In the focus of this sinister work stands mankind within its timeline of birth and decease, who, based on its culture, unlearned treating other species as equal as well as it questions man's position in the estranged nature of today.

A brilliant, almost fragile fingerstyle guitar alternates with a voluminous, mandolin-like style of playing, acting as though shepherded by ocean waves, on the one hand able to raise impetuously and on the other hand capable of associations of softly gliding bird's wings carried by the wind.

Subtly woven into a sound stage, mainly consisting of piano, organ, concertina, strings as well as jazzy bass and drums, the listener is inevitably getting entangled in a sound experience that is drawing marvellously attention to singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ricardo Hoffmann’s emotional baritone, who is capable of mastering a falsetto, too.