One of the most cherished artists in my collection.
I’m writing about them because I feel even now they’ve gone severely unnoticed in music, even though the sound, style and arrangements October Project was honing back in 1993 can be heard in a lot of current artists out now who are enjoying great respect and success today. It’s time to give October Project props for being the musical visionaries they are! ☺
October Project never got a lot of airtime on the radio or MTV / VH-1 style shows. Their live TV performances were few and far between, and there really weren’t a lot of places October Project could connect with people who might dig their style of music. In fact, if not for a chance listen to their debut CD, I might never have discovered them myself!
Ironically enough, the first time I ever heard October Project WAS in October. I’d walked down to my local Tower Records store, and the brisk weather really had me in the Halloween mood. After perusing the singles and latest video releases, I moseyed on to the Tower Records Listening Station. This was back when there were only four or five stations unlike the scan and listen machines record stores have now. Anyway, on one of the listening stations, there was a CD with a vintage-looking Halloween cover on it. The artists proclaimed themselves “October Project”. This piqued my curiosity! What WAS this group about? Did they sing Halloween songs? So I put on the earphones and gave a listen to the first song…
The song was “Bury My Lovely”. Even today I can’t fully describe what it was like hearing them for the first time. The haunting piano opening and that mysterious operatic voice just hit me at once. Then the band kicked in with drums, keyboards and a swelling vocal chorus…! It was the most haunting, lonesome song I had ever heard! I listened to a few other songs, wondering just who these people were. I guessed they must be chamber music vocalists like CLANNAD. The back cover gave no clue as to who they were, and I surmised they were a Classical group compromised of opera singers or something!
I went home that night but couldn’t get Bury My Lovely out of my head. The next night I went back to listen to the tracks again, and made up my mind to purchase the CD that night! Even though I believed the songs were recorded by a bunch of 60-year-old singers... I DIDN”T CARE! I went home and I remember sitting in my room, listening to the CD, and feeling like I was in another time. I felt like I was listening to vintage fairy-tale music- (albeit vintage fairy tale music with rocking drums and guitar!) and those haunting vocals sounded both bohemian and gothic all at the same time!…OK, OK…I know all of this sound ridiculously sappy and corny and a bit Foo-Foo… but like I said, It is impossible for me to describe the effect October Project had for me. I’m trying to put feelings into words, and they’re coming out quite corny indeed!
Another thing… When I finally got the CD, the booklet inside wasn’t any help shedding light upon the mystery that was October Project. The pictures of the members were all blurry, and taken in that same vintage style. So even then I couldn’t tell what kind of people they were. Even worse, they seemed to have different credits for the performing musicians onstage and on the album! I was utterly baffled. This was before anyone heard of Google or Wikipedia - there just wasn’t any way to get info about them.
I found out later that I wasn’t alone in this confusion. Reviewers actually say that this could be the reason October Project never made it big…they were uncategorizable: They sounded like a mix of Gothic, Chamber Music, New Age and Rock all together, and their anonymity made it even harder for fans to associate with them. Remember, even I thought I was listening to a bunch of Older People!
Anyway, so the CD got put into my collection, and every time I felt like relaxing with dreamy atmospheric music, I would put it on. And every time I would listen to the music, I would fall in love with them all over again.
A few years later, I was now WORKING at Tower, and one night I happened to see buried in the stack of new releases a NEW October Project CD, a nicely packaged album titled “Falling Farther In”.
I remember being quite surprised to see a new release from them because since I hadn’t heard anything about them, I had convinced myself that the first CD was a one-shot album made up of session vocalists.
So I bought the CD and after a few listens, promptly got right back into being obsessed with October Project. What a terrific album! Then of Coure I had to break out my first album...just great! Every time I would listen to the CDs, I would remember how much I loved them.
One great thing about "Falling Farther In" was that they finally got around to shooting proper pictures of the band in the CD booklet… I was pleasantly surprised to find out they were ALL young, hip, and extremely cool artists! Like their music, the look of the band reflected Folk, San Francisco rock, Goth, Vocals and World music all at once! And this time, hunting on the Internet brought some success, and I was able to find a few bits of information out there about my beloved group. I was even able to read reviews of concerts and the current events surrounding the band...(Special mention to Alan, a true OP guru) I was totally hooked on them again!
Sadly, this would be the last album that October Project released. Soon after the release of Falling Farther In, Sony/ Epic would drop the group, right in the midst of a tour!
Mary Fahl would go on to enjoy a solo career, and the remaining members of October Project would forge ahead with groups like November Project, OP3 and the newly revamped October Project featuring Emil Adler, Marina Belica and Julie Flanders!
Enjoy the beautiful PV for "Bury My Lovely". I love this video, as it captures the spirit of October Project. All gothic, mysterious and shrouded in shadows....
October Project
Mary Fahl: Vocals
Marina Belica: Vocals/Keyboards
Emil Adler: Vocals/Keyboards
David Sabatino: Guitar/Vocals
Urbano Sanchez: Drums/Percussion
Julie Flanders: Lyrics
