In And Out Of The Light

Based in Sydney, Peter Milton Walsh and his band, The Apartments, are acclaimed by critics and fans alike all over the world. Peter Milton Walsh formed The Apartments in Brisbane, 1978, and left Australia for New York a few years later, and relocated to England when The Apartments were signed by legendary English record label Rough Trade. But before leaving Australia, Walsh made his mark on the Brisbane scene. With a reputation that preceded him, Walsh was sought out by Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, members of one of Brisbane's most critically adored bands, The Go-Betweens. Having been offered an 8-album deal by Beserkley Records (home to Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers), Forster and McLennan asked Walsh to join The Go-Betweens as their fourth member in late 1978. The union was, however, short-lived, as the deal with Beserkley fell through. Grant McLennan famously said of their different personalities, "Walsh is night, we are day. We're sun, he's rain."

In and Out of the Light is a classic Apartments album, with songs, lines and melodies coming back to you long after the music has stopped playing. The songs follow a set of characters who, in the aftermath of loss or simply the changes that turn up in everyone's lives, have gone looking for some other way to live--and found it. Stories with the texture of this experience float through the intimate, reflective songs on the album.

The album came together in a new way for The Apartments. Recording began in Sydney, at the end of winter of 2019. Working a few hours a day, one or two days a week, the album was finished in the summer, with the final mix completed the day before coronavirus lockdown hit Australia in 2020. The songs took shape impressionistically across the recording days, with details of melodies, fragments of lyrics and hooks determining the form--a departure from the band's usual way of building songs upon a bedrock of bass and drums.

Peter Milton Walsh and bass player Eliot Fish worked with producer Tim Kevin in his Marrickville studio in Sydney, while French Apartments, Natasha Penot and Antoine Chaperon, recorded their parts in various studios in France. English drummer Nick Allum worked in London.

In and Out of the Light (their 7th studio album) again features Chris Abrahams from The Necks on piano. The vocal and piano for We Talked Through Till Dawn were recorded live in one take with Peter singing as Chris played piano. They had recorded the popular Apartments song, She Sings to Forget You, in this way before. Miro Bukovsky, who played on No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal, again played flugelhorn and trumpet.

In 2015, The Apartments surprised fans by reemerging--after over a decade of silence--with No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal, an album that saw a new audience drawn to The Apartments music. By year's end, readers and critics of French music magazine Magic named No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal #1 Album of the Year.

Five years later, In and Out of the Light is the highly anticipated album that will once more appeal to existing fans and new ones as well. Listeners will again find themselves reflected in songs which, laced with the light of optimism, speak to situations all of us face and deal with at some point. The Apartments exquisite instrumentation and beautiful harmonies and Peter Milton Walsh's impressionistic storytelling work together beautifully on In and Out of the Light. Here are eight songs to get lost in--for a day, for a week, for a lifetime.