Sandro – Live by Rivers

Solar/Sonar is proud to announce the reissue on vinyl for the first time of Live By Rivers, the 1996 debut
album by Melbourne band Sandro. 30 years ago to the day, Sandro released this beautiful, slow burning
masterpiece. This record was sent to me for review in 1997 when I was the editor of a street press in Hobart and has lived as a part of me ever since. In 2005 Solar/Sonar released Threaded Into The Night which was a live recording of Sandro’s last ever show and it is an honour to now present Sandro’s first album, Live By Rivers to new listeners.

Whilst fans of slowcore and Australian indie will love this record, for me it is a rich and complex work that
goes so far beyond anything I’ve heard before or since. Recorded in a church in Collingwood, the contours
of the building live and breathe and play drunken host to Sandro’s simmering beauty. Singer/Guitarist
Gareth Edwards is one of my favourite songwriters (See also The Holy Rose, Corners, Knife Fights). His
voice is pure but his words are coarse, heartbreaking, sometimes funny and sometimes mean. Bassist Nick
Carroll and drummer Cameron Potts slink around the sun weary melodies and whilst refined, every note is
given to heartbreak. With a remaster by Mikey Young, Live By Rivers hits even harder and after thousands
of listens I’m hearing new detail previously buried in the pews. I’m so happy that I get to pass this incredible
album onto others so that it may leave its mark on them like it did on me.

Tom Lyngcoln Solar/Sonar