Caliban Press Release

   Highly unique Celtic progressive rockers Tempest have now begat an
   offspring, two-fifths of the band, leader Lief Sorbye and manic fiddler
   Michael Mullen finally filling a multitude of fan requests for a Caliban 
   project. What is Caliban? Lief explains (sort of): "Caliban is a character in 
   the Shakespeare play The Tempest, who  sometimes appears as a villain
   and a servant, and sometimes appears in a mask. Servant, mask, villain 
   it all applies. People that are hip to Shakespeare get it right away, not like 
   we're big Shakespeareans (laughs)."

   But Caliban is also the Tempest duo's "pure folk project", or more
   pointedly a heart-warming gathering of acoustic singsongs, featuring both
   originals and traditionals, rendered close, quiet and deeply rooted in history.

   "We'd been doing quite a number of shows throughout the last year in and
   around the San Francisco area and have built up a bit of demand for it. It
   started off because we're working musicians and wanted to play more
   intimate settings, simply for a sense of diversity. We've ended up playing
   festivals where Tempest headlines, and Caliban play on a secondary stage,
   but so far Caliban has been more of a local project. So for the album, we
   took the songs our fanbase said they wanted to hear on record, and 
   recorded it in the same sort of intimate, relaxed setting as our performances,
   trying to stick to an intimate live feel as opposed to a big production. It's 
   more of a down-home folk album than anything progressive rock. A 
   traditional folk music album. It's more of a pure setting, versus the rock
   environment we have with Tempest."

   But the Tempest experience has definitely had an effect on the
   sensibilities of Caliban. Through two Magna Carta releases ('96's Turn Of
   The Wheel and '97's The Gravel Walk), Tempest have built themselves into 
   an international touring act with a mailing list of 12,000 fans, friends and
   followers. And before Tempest (after his emigration from Norway to
   California in '81), Sorbye spent eight years with traditional Celtic act Golden 
   Bough, as well as releasing two solo albums, “Spring Dans” and “Across
   The Borders”. A lifetime of dedication.

   So the Caliban record is a whirlwind tour of flavors building on this rich
   legacy of courting the Celtic muse, Sorbye's sonorous storyteller vocals
   and meticulous octave-mandola countering Mullen's ever-flowing fiddle
   patterns, creating a singular synergy of Lief's Norwegian heritage, Michael's 
   grounding in country and classical, and the duo's shared love of Scottish and 
   Irish musics. "Yes, Michael was classically trained, playing in youth 
   orchestras and stuff," recounts Lief. "But where he's from, the Fresno area, 
   the music that goes over very well is country music, so he played a
   fair bit of that, which has given him a lot of diversity of style. And with
   that, he's also built up a lot of Celtic techniques based on his Irish heritage, 
   and taken it from there."

   "So the record's a mix of stuff," Lief offers. "I sing one song, 'Jeg Lagde
   Meg Sa Silde', in my native Norwegian language. It's an old 16th century
   ballad I've known for many years, which I rearranged for this recording.
   It's a diversity of ethnic roots really, because we've got everything from a 
   Scottish march, to Irish reels, dance tunes. We've got a Norwegian song,
   a British murder ballad done acappella, and then we've got some 
   contemporary songs, so it's definitely a cross-section."

   Standout tracks include two traditional pieces 'Bold John Barleycorn' and
   'The Journeyman', bluegrass-tinted Billy Connoly tune 'Oh No', plus a
   Richard Thompson composition called 'Beeswing', which Lief figures is his
   favorite on the record.  "I'm particularly fond of that one because it really 
   came off naturally, easy and relaxed. A lot of this is first takers, and I felt on 
   that one, for some reason,  I was able to relate the story with the right 
   amount of passion." Mullen also figures prominently on borrowed viola.

   So the Caliban record endeavors to capture the sense of communion shared 
   at a robust, but soft-footed, folk-rooted Celtic concert. "Yes, in a way, this
   is a document of the live experience. Michael's a guy that gets very involved 
   in his playing when he's on stage. He's a true showman and the two of us 
   can stir up quite a bit of energy on our own. So we wanted to create the 
   record very quickly and spontaneously to hopefully capture that." 

   Also integral to the record was Tempest producer Robert Berry (recording
   took place at Soundtek Studios in Campbell, California), who efficiently
   harnessed the band's energy, meeting effortlessly the particular production
   and mixing demands of acoustic instruments, as well as adding a bit of
   bass, guitar and keyboards.