Fish / Discusses tear-jerking ‘Garden Of Remembrance’

With preparations well underway for the release of his final album ‘Weltschmerz’ this 25 September, Fish has released his brand new single ‘Garden Of Remembrance’ and it is, without doubt, the most personal and moving moment of his fantastic career.

The song tells the story of a married couple dealing with the early onset of dementia and the resulting issues of a husband who is “Lost between the here and now, Somewhere that he can’t be found” and his wife.

Fish - Final album Weltschmerz out in September
Fish. Photo: Wojtek Kutyla

Fish told MetalTalk: “The song was put together as though we were painting a delicate piece of Royal Doulton china.”

The accompanying video is a tear jerking, gut wrenchingly beautiful piece.

Directed by David Lam and Hannah Thompson (daughter of Fish’s long term collaborator and illustrator Mark Wilkinson), the outdoor shots were filmed at daybreak during lockdown on a deserted beach, a glass wall separating the couple who, at one point are very briefly reunited.

Fish continued: “The video involved a complicated approach as the whole country went into lockdown just as we were due to start filming.

“I had to be filmed in front of a white screen in my home and then the gallery around me was created as a miniature 3-D model into which I was magically transported.

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“Meanwhile the couple were filmed on an Essex beach, rather than in Scotland as intended and the gigantic glass wall across the beach was intended to symbolise the separation of the couple.

“However it came to take on another meaning as lockdown separated families across the country.

“I was very aware of my mother in her room only 15 metres away and, although not on camera, I felt her presence intensely during the performance. My wife’s hand on my shoulders at the end of the video added to the emotional dynamic, drawing together yet another circle within the story.”

With his impending retirement from the music industry, Fish this morning says on Twitter about the new album: “This is my defining statement. I know that I can’t do anything more in music. It’s time to walk away.”

Fish holds an ever-increasing awareness of old age and the associated illnesses, through the death of his father in 2016 and his elderly mother moving into care with Fish and his wife in January 2019.

This makes ‘Weltschmerz’, the eleventh and final album from Fish, a fascinating final stand. The album is not depressing, but full of an air of finality and closure marking a magnificent end to a 40 year career.

Fish concluded: “These songs are autobiographical. I’m involved in all of them and I didn’t realise that until I sang them in the studio.

“There’s a lot of self-examination going on here, and I learned a great deal about myself in the making of this album.”

Fish - album package for Weltschmerz

The double album is available in multiple formats including double digipak CD with 16 page booklet and as a gatefold 180-gram double vinyl.

It is also released in a deluxe collectors edition as a hardback book, with 100 pages containing artwork by Mark Wilkinson and 8000 words of sleevenotes by Fish. Plus double CD and a Blu-Ray disc containing filmed interviews with Fish and Mark Wilkinson, live audio from 2018, four official videos and making of films and the entire album mixed in 5.1 audio HD and PCM WAV mixes.

WELTSCHMERZ TRACK LISITING
CD1
  1. Grace Of God (8.29)
  2. Man With A Stick (6.35)
  3. Walking On Eggshells (7.12)
  4. This Party’s Over (4.20)
  5. Rose Of Damascus (15.23)
CD2
  1. Garden Of Remembrance (6.02)
  2. C Song (The Trondheim Waltz) (4.42)
  3. Little Man What Now? (10.20)
  4. Waverley Steps (End Of The Line) (13.26)
  5. Weltschmerz (6.42)

 

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