Mostly known by his tenures with LENINGRAD COWBOYS and WISHBONE ASH, Ben Granfelt‘s been building his solo career for two decades now, but he was never averse to an occasional collaboration with different musicians, None of those records, however, seemed to demonstrate the robustness of interface the Finnish guitarist provides in terns of trading licks with other masters of his trade as much as the veteran’s forthcoming album, laid down in the company of fellow six-stringer Thomas Blug and bassist Martin Engelien, does.
Comprised of three instrumentals and five vocal cuts, including one cover, it’s appropriately titled “Strat-O-Sphere” and scheduled for November 8th. How did the project come about?
Strat-O-Sphere
“I met and have admired Thomas’ playing and tone since the late Nineties,” says Ben, “and then, when he later played a couple of solos on my ‘Melodic Relief’ album in 2012, I knew we needed to play together in the future. Fast forward to a Martin Engelien ‘GO Music Tour’ that we both played on, I got a call from the promoter of the Guitar Heroes festival in Joldelund in Germany, who said he wanted me and Thomas on his festival. “Can you put together a band?’ he asked. Well, Martin was already there, so we tried out with a few different drummers until we found Tommy Fisher and here we are, we’ve got a great album coming out called ‘Strat-O-Sphere’!”
1. Hello Cleveland!
2. Ride Out The Storm
3. A Need For Speed
4. Stand Up As One
5. Hold Your Head Up
6. Bondrix
7. Cocaine
8. Last Day Of Summer
9. Stand Up As One (edit)
