Robert Forster releases Inferno – his best solo album yet

Robert Forster has returned to the studio after a four year hiatus which resulted in his poignant account of his Go-Betweens' years, Grant & I.

Inferno is acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter and author Robert Forster’s first solo album in four years – only his second over the last eleven years. Forster only makes records when he feels he has the songs - on Inferno, he has nine he totally believes in. He apparently recorded 10 (see clip below).

They range from the exhilarating title track "Inferno (Brisbane In Summer)," the beach shack groove of ‘Life Has Turned A Page’, via ‘Remain’s 1977 New York strut, to finish in a way that this concise, brilliant, drama and wit filled album only can - on the big build epic ‘One Bird In The Sky’.

Inferno was made in Berlin in 2018, during the hottest German summer in decades. Noted producer/engineer Victor Van Vugt (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Moodists, The Walkabouts), recorded the album; the first time he and Forster had worked together since Van Vugt engineered Forster’s debut solo album classic ‘Danger In The Past’ in Berlin way back in 1990.

Inferno in its making is a perfect mix of the familiar and the new. Also working with Forster again, are Brisbane based multi-instrumentalists Scott Bromley and Karin Bãumler from ‘Songs To Play’ (2015), while new recruits are drummer Earl Havin (Tindersticks) and Fender Rhodes keyboardist Michael Muhlhaus (Blumfeld, Kante). Four musicians from the corners of the world, who, with Van Vugt’s bold and beautiful production, sound like a band of the ages. In front of them, Forster delivers some of the best vocal performances of his career.

Over the last four years Forster has been busy. He curated the acclaimed Go-Betweens retrospective Anthology Volume 1 1978-1984 for Domino Records. His engrossing memoir Grant & I was, appropriately enough, Mojo and Uncut’s Book Of The Year. He continues to publish music journalism, play concerts, and he never stops writing beautiful songs. Watch the video for "Inferno (Brisbane In Summer)" after the entertaining promo clip.

Robert Forster's Inferno album is out now on Tapete Records and you can get it right here.