Album and Tour Information: A.S. Fanning (IRL) - Take Me Back To Nowhere

Berlin-based Irish songwriter A.S. Fanning combines a core of introspective folk with the power and breadth of rock, wave and psychedelic pop. His themes are rarely optimistic – transience, the fragile nature of our reality, general unease about many aspects of our present – but his distinctive baritone and a virtuoso band clothe them in eerily beautiful, dense soundscapes.

His latest album, Mushroom Cloud (2023), received widespread attention across Europe and cemented his reputation as one of Ireland's most fascinating songwriters. The press saw the fearless songwriting on Mushroom Cloud as a milestone in his career and drew comparisons to greats such as Leonard Cohen and Scott Walker. Fanning was named Songwriter of the Year 2023 and Best Lyrics of 2023 by Far Out Magazine, among others. Together with his band, he played concerts for WDR Rockpalast and Deutschlandfunk ‘On Stage’, accompanied by extensive tours through Germany, Great Britain, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and France.

For his fourth solo album, Take Me Back To Nowhere, Fanning once again collaborated with producer and sound engineer Robbie Moore. The album was recorded at Idea Farm, a remote converted farm in southern Sweden, which Fanning himself had helped to renovate over the past few years.

The creative process behind the album was more open and experimental than its predecessors. The new songs were written together with his international live band: Bernardo Sousa (electric guitar), Dave Adams (organ, synthesizer, piano), Fred Sunesen (drums) and Felix Buchner (bass). Guest musician Marta Zapparoli contributed atmospheric sound textures.

The pieces, originally recorded live, were deconstructed and completely reworked, bringing ambient elements and sparse, expansive soundscapes further to the fore. A broken wrist forced Fanning to shift his songwriting process to the keyboard and drum machine – a break from his usual work on the guitar, but one that opened up new perspectives: ‘The approach is completely different,’ he explains. ‘You think much more about where the dynamics of a song should lead. Sometimes you just let yourself be carried away by the momentum of the lyrics instead of sticking to chords or classic song structures.’ During rehearsals with the band, these fragments developed into complex, multi-layered songs.

Compared to the overwhelmingly dark predecessor ‘Mushroom Cloud’, a glimmer of hope can be perceived on ‘Take Me Back To Nowhere’. A statement like ‘You make me wanna stay alive’ (‘Stay Alive’) sounds almost life-affirming in the A.S. Fanning universe – even if the verse on the way there still raises the idea of stepping in front of the incoming underground train. There is even a love song on the album: ‘Now I'm in Love’, in which the narrator is so shocked by this realisation that he compares it to the feeling of being connected to a car battery. ‘Today Is For Forgetting’ begins almost cheerfully, only to turn into a flood of words – a psychological, sociological and ultimately cosmic journey that ultimately focuses on a single human being and their constant struggle to remain sane and functional.

The cheerful mood may prove deceptive in the end. Inspired by science fiction authors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and J.G. Ballard, Fanning explores how imagination distorts reality and how fear transforms the world into surreal, isolating landscapes. In addition to inner turmoil, there are the ever-present global conflicts, the noise of social media and the feeling of a disintegrating moral centre. War as spectacle, reduced to ‘content’, deepens the feeling of unreality. Civilisation as a mere façade. Thus, ‘Take Me Back To Nowhere’ becomes a poetic exploration of chaos, an embrace of dissolution. The title itself is both escape and longing – ‘a return to a world beyond reason, to non-existence,’ as A.S. Fanning describes it.

A.S. Fanning live

• 16.03.26 Langenberg (DE) – KGB
• 17.03.26 Groningen (NL) – Der Aa-Theater
• 18.03.26 Utrecht (NL) – TivoliVredenburg
• 19.03.26 Brighton (UK) – The Folklore Rooms
• 20.03.26 Bristol (UK) – The Louisianna
• 24.03.26 Glasgow (UK) – The Hug & Pint
• 25.03.26 Manchester (UK) – The Talleyrand
• 26.03.26 London (UK) – The Grace
• 28.03.26 Altenkichen (DE) – KulturSalon Stadthalle
• 21.04.26 Hamburg (DE) – Knust
• 23.04.26 Dresden (DE) – Ostpol
• 25.04.26 Oberhausen (DE) – Gdanska
• 29.04.26 Wien (AT) – Rhiz
• 30.04.26 Salzburg (AT) – Rockhouse
• 02.05.26 Berlin (DE) – Neue Zukunft