Four Songs By Arthur Russell

VINYL FORMAT. I first met Arthur Russell when I was 19. I had just graduated and all my friends had gone to London or Paris. I was left alone with exactly 126 euros and I knew I had to go somewhere. The only thing I could find for that money was a bus trip to the Mosel Valley in Germany. Unfortunately it turned out to be a wine-testing trip for old people. I was highly disappointed at first, I had expected some kind of adventure, but after a while I just started walking around in the hills with my walkman. A friend had made a tape with songs from Arthur Russell's 'Another Thought' and so that week the most beautiful voice I'd ever heard accompanied the most beautiful landscapes I'd ever seen. I burned my neck really bad.

Four years later I was playing shows here and there and I often played Arthur's 'A Little Lost' on my kalimba. I had suggested to my friend Victoria Bergsman that maybe we should make a cover single or EP of Arthur's songs. She put me in touch with Verity Susman from Electrelane and I brought in Joel Gibb from the Hidden Cameras. At this point we felt there was a certain symmetry between us, we could've brought in a few more and made a tribute album but tribute albums are boring in my opinion and tend to lose focus halfway through. - Jens Lekman