Thurn & Taxis



Gorodisch is Stephen Cracknell, who also leads The Memory Band and is a member of The Accidental. Prior to releasing records as Gorodisch he performed as a guitarist on a number of tracks released by the now defunct Bristol label Cup Of Tea, including the elusive Grantby, while running a business importing obscure vinyl albums from America. He then went on to be one of the founder members of Trunk Records who released the 'Super Sounds Of Bosworth' series and 'The Wicker Man' OST. After 'The Wicker Man' release Cracknell left Trunk to concentrate on the making music. Gorodisch (the name is a bastardisation of a character in the Delacorta novel and later Jean-Jacques Beneix film 'Diva' - who shares Cracknell's love of a good sandwich) is an attempt to distil the wide range of Cracknell's own musical tastes from traditional British song to contemporary folk music such as disco, drum and bass and 2 step, passing through jazz, hip-hop, exotic instrumentation and electronica. Gorodisch made his debut on the noted 'Osmosis' compilation on The Leaf label and followed this up with 'Cariad' also on Leaf, as part of the 'Invisible Soundtracks' series. Then came a spell during the summer of 2000 alongside Fridge as part of Badly Drawn Boy's band, before Cracknell returned to the studio to complete the mini-album 'Thurn & Taxis' which was released in July 2001 to much acclaim. 'Thurn & Taxis' is a nod to the author Thomas Pynchon and his novel 'The Crying Of Lot 49' picking up on the themes of monopolies versus underground communication, and the notion of reality being coloured by time and memory. In 2003 he formed The Memory Band who have produced two albums to date and also the Hungry Hill label, run in conhjunction with Spinney Records. In 2008 his new project The Accidental formed with Sam Genders, Hannah Caughlin and Liam Bailey released its debut album. He has also performed live with Badly Drawn Boy, Adem, Bishi and Hot Chip. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.