OUT TODAY VIA TELAMO/BMG
Art Garfunkel & Art Garfunkel Jr. are thrilled to release their hugely anticipated first-ever collaborative album, Father And Son. The stunning cover album, released today via TELAMO/BMG, features a dozen timeless hits and standards spanning almost an entire century. It’s an extremely personal selection, an essential set of longtime favourites that Garfunkel & Garfunkel have been listening to for as long as they can remember. The result is a beautiful testament to the unique bond between “father and son”, and a lavishly arranged musical journey through different genres.
“We were going for a real modern orchestral vibe, with lots of strings,” Garfunkel & Garfunkel say about the new project’s lush and lavish sound. Incorporating a series of stunning, truly cinematic string arrangements, the duo brings iconic songs from various eras into the present. In the studio, they enlisted three international greats to capture the unique father-son dynamic: Trusted hit producer Felix Gauder (Pet Shop Boys, Jimmy Somerville) was joined by renowned Italian string arranger Davide Rossi (Coldplay, Alicia Keys) and famed UK studio wizard Ash Howes (Kylie Minogue, Ellie Goulding).
“This one is truly a father-son project, it’s all about this unique connection,” Garfunkel Jr. says of the album. “We recorded about a dozen of our most cherished songs. I brought more of the 80s influences into the project, and my father brought more of the Great American Songbook – wonderful songs from the 1940s and so on. These two influences came together in a pretty exciting way. Overall, it’s definitely an expression of our bond.”
“It felt like a dream. It was simply quite wonderful. I love working with him,” adds NYC hitmaking veteran Art Garfunkel, who was born in 1941 and launched his career with Simon & Garfunkel in the late 1950s. “I like to say my son is a better singer than I am. I mean, I’m pretty good… but he is better,” he adds, raving about his son’s characteristic falsetto.
The album sees Garfunkel & Garfunkel’s two voices complement each other beautifully as father and son take turns on the mic, adding their unique twists to a wide range of personal favourites. Highlights selected by Garfunkel Sr. include “Let It Be Me” (“That’s a duet we’ve done on stage many times. We’ve been singing it for years. Oh, how I love singing that with my son. I stole it from The Everly Brothers,” jokes the elder) and a series of timeless jazz standards including “Nature Boy”, Jo Stafford’s “You Belong To Me”,1930s classic “Once In A While”, and the beautiful “Blue Moon” which opens the album. Another stand-out includes Don McLean’s homage to Van Gogh, “Vincent”.
“That one is McCartney at his best,” says Garfunkel Sr. about the Beatles’ J.S. Bach-inspired “Blackbird”, a classic his son also grew up with: “We just knew it had to be on the record,” he adds, “and I knew that we could sing it beautifully together.” Father And Son also features “Old Friends”, originally recorded by the elder Garfunkel. “There is a degree of sadness in the song, but also, it’s quite thought-provoking. It’s one of my favourite Simon & Garfunkel tunes,” says Jr. “And we are old friends now, we’ve known each other for over three decades,” he adds with a smile.
Although born in the early 90s, classic 80s tunes were a huge influence on Art Garfunkel Jr., who is fluent in German. “I’m clearly the guy who loves 80s music, so those were definitely my suggestions,” he says, referring to the lavish interpretations of “Here Comes The Rain Again” (Eurythmics), Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” and Ph.D.’s 1981 hit “I Won’t Let You Down”.
Finally, the album title obviously nods to Cat Stevens’ timeless anthem “Father And Son”from 1970: “My dad gives me little pearls of wisdom and advice towards my career. It happens rarely, but when he gives them, they have great meaning,” says Garfunkel Jr. when asked about parallels between the song’s lyrics and his own path towards independence as an artist.
Art Garfunkel Jr. was born in Manhattan in 1990, the first child of Kathryn and Art Garfunkel. Spending most of his childhood and youth in the United States, he often accompanied his father on tour, even as a child. After moving to Berlin as a teenager, he began tracing his grandparents’ German roots and developed a love for German pop music. Touring extensively with his father in 2018 and 2019, he subsequently released his German-language solo debut “Wie Du” (2021) which became a sensational Top-10 success in Germany and remained in the Top-100 for nearly 30 weeks in 2022. In the following year, his sophomore album “Evergreen” reached the Top-15, seeing Art Garfunkel Jr. follow in his father’s footsteps while also carving his own path.
Easily regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of pop music, Art Garfunkel boasts eight Grammy wins, thirteen nominations and countless gold/platinum awards, all of which paved the way for his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He launched his career in 1957 as one-half of the famed US folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, which he founded together with songwriter Paul Simon. Global hit singles such as “Sound of Silence”, “Scarborough Fair”, “Mrs. Robinson”, “The Boxer” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” have since become part of the canon of Western Pop History. After the duo split up in 1970, Garfunkel not only landed massive solo hits (e.g. “Bright Eyes”), but also acted in various Hollywood films. Having shared stages with Paul Simon occasionally over the last decades (their 1981 Central Park performance in front of a 500k+ audience comes to mind), he’s recently been performing with his son, Art Garfunkel Jr. With this latest chapter, Garfunkel & Garfunkel celebrate their unique connection.
Father And Son by Garfunkel & Garfunkel is available now.
