Dakota Suite

Leeds based musician Chris Hooson is a very prolific man. He seems to brim over with ideas for songs and projects. And although he works a full job as a adviser in a probation center he and his band Dakota Suite still find enough time to put all these songs on magnetic tape.

Over the years Glitterhouse has released a singles-compilation ("Alone With Everybody"/98), a collection of instrumental pieces for piano and assorted instruments ("Navigators Yard"/99), another instrumental one recorded with a chamber orchestra ("The Way I Am Sick"/01), a mini album ("Morning Lake Forever"/00), and two "real" full-lenght albums: "Songs For A Barbed Wire Fence" in 1998 and "Signal Hill" (2000). Without wanting to dismiss all the other projects, "This River Only Brings Poison" is Dakota Suite's third album.

Recording were started a year ago when Chris Hooson was on holidays in America. Being friend of American Music Club he called Bruce Kaphan and asked if they could visit his studio to work on a few demos. They recorded three songs and made an appointment for March 2002. The rest of the songs were completed with Bruce and Tim Mooney (both ex-American Music Club members). Some finishing touches were added in Leeds, Fremont and Nashille (with Derri Daugherty who also mixed and mastered Buddy and Julie Miller's record).

The result is the perfect summary of everything Dakota Suite tried to achieve. A merging of soul, country and jazz, sweet horns are mixed delicate steel and plaintive strings, a blend of Chris Hooson's influences, people as diverse as Bill Evans, Elenei Karaindrou and Tom Waits.

Theres nobody in Britain making a finer fusion of lush instrumentation and 3am moods than Dakota Suite. Soundscapes for a desolate and fractured heart.