Eliza Carthy and Ben Seal - Through That Sound (My Secret Was Made Known) (2024) [Hi-Res]

The Nineties in Edinburgh produced many creative movements and communities. The legendary Bongo Club in the abandoned bus depot on New Street began as a family-funded affair that has since grown into a fully-fledged Arts organisation and celebrated club at the heart of Edinburgh's cultural life.

Sometime around the Millennium, Ben Seal served Eliza Carthy there in their role as glamorous barkeep, and the two struck up a very silly friendship. Fast forward twenty years and Ben, with brass in pocket from Creative Arts Scotland, phoned Eliza and asked if she would submit to having an album produced for her: all new collaborative songs, with Ben providing the sonic palette & arrangements, and Eliza bringing her ideas and voice.

Through That Sound (My Secret Was Made Known) was to be a self-release on Eliza's HemHem Records, with a launch tour scheduled for Spring 2020. The band decamped to Whitby to rehearse while in the outside world the news rumbled on...something about a virus...

A week before what turned out to be Lockdown Number One, the band looked each other in the eyes, said goodbye, and that was it!

The Restitution finally got the chance to play Through That Sound on tour 2021. The live shows were immense and emotional, and the band agreed that once Eliza's thirtieth-year celebrations with Queen Of The Whirl were over, they would love to play the material again, and give the album another shot at life.