Here is Brian Carpenter & The Confessions’ music video for “This Lonely Road,” directed by Joshua Black Wilkins in NYC. The song features a traditional Swedith instrumental called the nyckelharpa played by Carla Kihlstedt. During the sessions, Carla got her necklace caught in the instrument and it made an interesting sound so the band decided to use that as a percussion device.
The Far End of the World (Accurate Records) is the debut full-length album from Brian Carpenter & the Confessions, a Boston-based band led by Brian Carpenter (Beat Circus, Ghost Train Orchestra). The album transports the listener into another world filled with haunting imagery, reverb-drenched guitar, and Carpenter’s dry baritone evoking desire, loss, loneliness, and separation. The album was recorded by Rafi Sofer at Q Division in the winter in Boston and mixed by Craig Schumacher in the deserts of Tucson, Arizona.
The Far End of the World turns a corner in Capenter’s songwriting to dig deeper into a place of vulnerability and intimacy to create a bond with the listener. While “Savior of Love” explores the anxieties of forbidden love, the romantic unraveling begins with the next song “Lost at Sea.” The rest of the album further explores the complexities of desire, separation, feeling lost, memory, and rumination.
Carpenter sought out veteran music producer Craig Schumacher (Calexico, Neko Case) to mix the album and enlisted a who’s-who of the Boston music scene to collaborate with. The band includes drummer Gavin McCarthy (Karate, Ted Leo), guitarist Andrew Stern (Beat Circus), violinist Jonathan LaMaster (Cul de Sac), violist David Michael Curry (Thalia Zedek Band), cellist Rachel Barringer (The Wrong Shapes), and singers Jen Kenneally and Noell Dorsey (Guillermo Sexo.) Guest Carla Kihlstedt (Tin Hat, Rabbit Rabbit) sings and performs on violin, viola, and the nyckelharpa.
