Andy Bell releases solo album Torsten The Bareback Saint
Erasure pop legend Andy Bell has announced the release of his fourth solo album Torsten The Bareback Saint, a groundbreaking musical concept available from 28th July 2014 through Strike Force Entertainment (Cherry Red Records).
The theatrical 22 song-cycle tells the poignant stories of semi-immortal polysexual Torsten, cursed to love many and get close to none, as his age-defying nature condemns him to watch all his friends and lovers grow old and die before him. Ultimately he must leave them all to avoid their uneasiness in witnessing that Torsten himself does not age as evenly. Torsten sings deeply affecting expositional songs that incrementally illuminate the extraordinarily mysterious life of a man disconcerted by his own bizarre experience of the nature of passing time. “The songs are like a set of lyrical postcards from the hotspots of memory”, Andy himself explains.
An eternal teenager throughout most of the 20th Century, a growth spurt in the late 80s brings Torsten to the age of 42, then stops again. Despite the strength of the body, its the spirit that suffers, getting old and tired as the drive and need to achieve gradually abandon him. The lack of emotional ties torment his soul, having no choice but to leave all of his many lovers, one by one, before they discover the reality of his anomalous condition.
Following the album release, Torsten the Bareback Saint will be performed exclusively at the Edinburgh Festival Assembly - Venue 1, George Square from the 5th to 16th August. Andy Bell’s performance in this highly dramatic one-man show delivers heart-rending musical missives direct from the pulpit of his outsider life. “Torsten is a semi-immortal polysexual sensualist and I love playing him” says Bell - “It’s the most challenging role of my career so far.” The cutting-edge show is not however a closed narrative: subsequent shows will feature different songs and events in Torsten’s life, allowing the audience to discover more about his complex character and surreal experiences.
Andy Bell rose to fame in the 80s as the lead singer of famed synth-pop duo Erasure with Vince Clarke, which went on to sell over 20 million albums worldwide - 5 of which were No.1 in the UK; they have also had 17 Top Ten UK singles so far in their career. Personally, Bell took part in several charity recordings – many supporting AIDS related projects – and sang the role of Montresor in the opera The Fall of the House of Usher in 1991. He released his first solo album Electric Blue in 2005, followed by a second, Non-Stop, in 2010. He recently collaborated with dance duo Shelter; the result, album ‘iPop’, is released this month. Flamboyant dance-pop icon Bell is openly gay and publicly announced being HIV positive in 1998.
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