The TFK project is routed in emotions and events dating back to many years ago. In the late 1990s our formation had just been changed and we were getting through a period difficult to interpreter: the outcomes of the 1996 album “Distances” were really disappointing and Andrea Costanza, who had been Court’s backbone and core creative soul up to then, left the band leaving a vacancy hard to be filled in again. So Andrea Balliano “Boll” was recruited as rhythmic guitarist, he has always been a friend of ours and we were thus able to promote “Distances” live also thanks to George Merk as lead guitarist. We could eventually feature the future of a new studio recording album . Pieces like: Limbo, Wet of Sky, Walking and Talking and Do you think we have time? (first version of Sun Beyond Time), which would then be included in "Frost of Watermelon", bore to light in that period and were the result of a joint creation between Balliano and Nodari.
In spring 1999 Marco Strobel joined the group, he had always been a close friend and worked as sound technician but he has always been an excellent guitarist and an inexhaustible creative and compositive soul. At first the partnership aimed at reaching short-term goals mainly focused on the recording of the new album. Marco should have worked as sound technician during the recording sessions but not only did he contribute technically, he also got deeply involved in the arrangements and composition of further new material: the new Court lined up a 6-peopled ensemble whose three guitars had a massive impact from the very beginning and distinguished the band’s live shows in those years. Also the dawn of the songs Men I Met, Synaptic Ghost, My World, When I Lose and Past Days by Nodari, Strobel, Balliano and Bonacina, belonging to “Frost of Watermelon”, broke in the early months of 2000 .
Technically supported by Andrea Cajelli and Marco Sessa (funders of “La Sauna recording studio” in Varano Borghi – Varese), we set to the recording in order to “freeze” on CD the recollection of this troubled and shaken-up period. The released demo featured the embryonic stages of some tracks of the future “Frost” which was mainly unreleased material. The end product was substantially incomplete which prevented us from signing worthy agreements with record labels and led the path to a totally independent-produced album. During the recording sessions Boll came up with the idea that the time for him to leave the band had come, so after 4 years his precious and outstanding contribution to Court faded away. The following period was hard and the group was on the verge of breaking up more than once. Luigi Bonacina, bassist and songwriter and funder of the original line-up, moved abroad as physics researcher; the voice and the irreplaceable front man Paolo Lucchina had a dream coming true and spent longer and longer periods far away from Italy. As a matter of fact the existence of the group was based only on Marco’s, Mosè’s and Francesco’s efforts and theoretical aims. The band was not playing live, had no record deal, was not convinced of the material recorded in 2000 and even enthusiasm was fading away.
Anyone happening to listen to a Court’s album will acknowledge the frequent blending of their powerful electronic impact with the acoustic shadows conveyed by the flutes, the recorders, the oboe, the classical and acoustic guitars and folk instruments as their main sound features. Back to 1994, the band happened to lend a helping hand to a group not having enough songs to cover an entire evening show, so in a few days a completely acoustic programme was prepared, which included “And You'll Follow the Winds' Rush 'Till Their Breath Dwells” having been recently recorded in Germany. Further to that exhibition both the public and the critics praised us to such an extent that since then we have always scheduled entirely acoustic moments in our concerts and which is more important those arrangements lived on and were played over and over again and improved.
The crisis lasted from 2001 to 2005 and in those years Marco and Mosè helped by Paolo when in Italy, decided to work systematically on those “ancient” songs brushing them up with new colours and enhancing them of an atmosphere complying harmonically with the lyrics. Luigi’s and Mosè’s pens had put to paper their medieval emotions, fairy feats and passions dating back to their early 20s when everything seems ideal, clear, strong and achievable. The job inside the band was shaped in a completely different way: the noisy rehearsal room was abandoned in order to practice in domestic spaces paying attention to the details, fades and the song dynamics. Never before had the band committed with such tasks. Several live concerts ensued and a completely acoustic programme was performed. More recent songs like Walking and Talking, Men I Met, My World, as well as Sumptuous Moment from “Distances” were rearranged clinging to the new scheme. Especially Sumptuous Moment was thought of having highly suffered from the artistic production of the second album and thus needed a totally different guise. This new phase restored our soul and enthusiasm which we had risked losing. All this brought about important decisions in 2006: first of all the recording of an album which would include the last troubled 10 years. The start up project was meant as a double CD, a new CD containing new songs and another one including the new version of the old songs. This was the period when Mosè and Marco wrote the suite Mad and Child and Bridge to Maya.
We entered the Varano Borghi studio, (“La Sauna recording studio”, which in the meantime had been modernised and restructured) in January 2006. After an entire year the collaboration with Andrea Cajelli and Marco Sessa, excellent professionals and friends, gave birth to “Frost of Watermelon” and part of the material of the acoustic CD. Half way through the recording the task turned out to be huge and impossible to tackle so we all agreed to leave the idea of releasing two CDs and produce them separately. Therefore the revisited material due to the acoustic CD was stopped just before the mixing and we concentrated exclusively on Frost. The album was completed and released in spring 2007. As the album was being released, Luigi definitively abandoned the band because his job as research did not comply with needs of the promotion of the new CD, and Jacopo Favarin, young and excellent bassist, joined in after having played in cover bands. In order to promote “Frost of Watermelon” we set about an adventure which tasted like a dream: a tour throughout the U.S.A., almost 20 dates in more than 16 states throughout June and July. The last date would be an unforgettable performance at The Gig in Hollywood – CA which brought about the victory of the Los Angeles Music Award as the best alternative rock band worldwide. Coming back to Italy, Paolo’s stream was due to drift apart from the band as he now definitely settled in Mexico. He left a vacancy which could barely be filled in as our live shows had always been pivoting around our frontman’s original exuberance. At first we were at loss, then we committed hard to find a new voice for the band, it was an exhausting and difficult research ending up with Marco Pedrini “Pedro” joining the band as Court’s new voice and frontman. 2011 featured several live exhibitions in Northern Italy and in Switzerland. The classical songs of the first two albums were performed together with most of the pieces of Frost of Watermelon. 2011 was the band 21st anniversary and it came natural looking back at the acoustic project and implementing it with the new line-up, especially with the new voice. In fall 2011 the recording was over: some bass tracks and the voices all anew were replaced on the material recorded 4 years before. The outcome is “Twenty Flying Kings”: the album includes 3 songs originally part of the 1993 debut album (Cries, Lovers, Alviss’ Revenge), Sumptuous Moment (originally present in the 1996 second album) all four songs have been completely played anew and rearranged, “Dream Tale” an original song composed in 1996 by Boll and Mosè and 2 tracks already composed in 2008 for “Inferno” (COLOSSUS/Musea, "Inferno" Album), an international rock progressive compilation dedicated to Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. All TFK songs are sung by Marco Pedrini so the album tastes as a real new album by Court tagged for a new era: some past songs dressed up with new colours. Enjoy it!!!

- Court, February 2012-