Sydney based music duo Fabels are bucking the trend in seeking success, instead taking their musical journey slowly and on their terms.
Consisting of Hiske Weijers (keyboards, bass, vocals) and Ben Aylward (guitar, drum machine), Fabels are practitioners of the little known and under appreciated genre of modern music known sometimes as shoe gaze.
Named for the habit of the guitarists often staring at their effects pedals as they sculpt sonic waves of sounds, the genre has its origins in the late eighties and early nineties with British bands like My Bloody Valentine and Lush, characterised by a wall of sound produced by a wash of instrumental sounds employing layers of distortion, loops, reverb, delay and chorus.
“Some of the material we do is a wall of sound, but we also have an orchestral sound with a neoclassical bent to it, and you could imagine playing it in a church,” Ben Aylward said. “I like that in-between tension where it is a strange collision between two different worlds.”
Fabels’ music is as much informed by classical greats such as Beethoven and Wagner as they are by modern American composer Philip Glass, who utilises repetitive structures and lyrical, sweeping phrases to create minimalist works of sublime beauty.
Aylward’s first flirtation with shoe gaze came about in the early nineties when he introduced elements of it into the records he made with Sydney indie favourites Swirl, a band known for its pop melodies, guitar riffs, reverb, fuzz and feedback.
When Swirl broke up in 2002, Aylward pursued the singer-writer route until he met Weijers in 2010 and started Fabels. Besides her bass and keyboards skills, she introduced a German style of singing called sprechgesang (almost spoken word akin to Lou Reed) to the band’s multi-layered musical approach.
“When I was younger I did a lot of busking, singing American west coast music, and slowly my musical taste seemed to evolve to people like Patti Smith and Laurie Anderson,” Weijers said.
Over their 16-year career, the still fiercely independent Fabels have produced four well-crafted and self-financed albums, all with producer Geir Brillian, though their latest release, Ophera, also engages The Church’s drummer Tim Powles as producer on around half the tracks.
“We mainly run at a loss but we make a little money on tour,” Aylward said. “I do it for the love of original music as it’s a very good thing for the soul, and it’s good for you as a person to do something that has nothing to do with money.”
One reason why the musical process takes so long is that the band create by throwing ideas around to create the music, and then pull it apart and rebuild it.
Ophera is an example of this strenuous creative process, as the nine tracks sound like a fully orchestrated production, despite using only a limited number of mainly cheap instruments deployed with maximum creativity.
Ranging from the bombastic Reifen to the melodic pagan dreamscape of Luister, the songs on Ophera are a distinct advance in their aural landscapes to previous albums, and may just be Fabels most accessible yet.
“Mainly our fans are musicians and people who are serious about music, and we go on a journey that is made to flow with the songs that I feel like are one performance,” Weijers said.
For now, Fabels are using live performances to advance their mission to get their Ophera material heard, while selling CDs and vinyl to finance their next sonic adventure.
Fabels may not be destined to bother the music charts anytime soon, but as an alternative to the ultra-processed earworms of current pop they may just be the antidote.
To purchase Ophera as a digital album or CD, visit: fabels.bandcamp.com For more information about the Fabels, visit: www.fabelsmusic.com for details.
Images: Ben Aylward and Hiske Weijers (supplied) | Ophera by Fabels (supplied)
Words: John Moyle