In the past 12 months, Atlanta’s Scott Herren, aka Prefuse 73, has waltzed into the alt.hip hop big league. With his second critically acclaimed Prefuse 73 album, One Word Extinguisher and follow-up EP ‘Extinguished’, Scott not only turned heads with his alarming melodies and beats, he packed venues, cleared the record shelves and his phone ran hot with tempting production offers and interest from the names in progressive hip hop.

Far from being banished to an ‘experimental’ hip hop ghetto, Prefuse 73 music makes sense to an eager audience of jazz, soul, r&b, electronica AND rock fans. In 2003 he spent the entire year on tour, going round the US twice with his band featuring Johnny Herndon (Tortoise) and DJ Ryan Rasheed, headlining at the Fuji Festival in Japan and more. Scott shared the cover of US music magazine XLR8R with the Stone’s Throw man of a thousand musical identities, Madlib – just one indication of the esteem and respect in which he is held in his homeland.

Now 27 and barely breaking into a sweat as he becomes one of our generation’s most accomplished artists – an established producer, songwriter, live performer and label owner (Eastern Developments) – Scott Herren continues to explore a deeper thread with a new Savath & Savalas album, Apropa’t.

Apropa’t is an album with a story. For the past 18 months, Scott has been based in Barcelona, Spain, searching for untold family roots and looking to put down some of his own. “My Father is from there,” he explains. “I didn’t grow up around him or the culture from Spain. So I’m there immersing myself in the things I wasn’t able to be around growing up – also connecting to an important part of myself that is necessary for me to move forward in life.”

After months of emailing, his quest led him to Catalan singer/songwriter Eva Puyuelo Muns: he was looking for somewhere to live, and she had a house. Their meeting resulted in instant musical connection. From those first months in the spring of 2002 impressions, ideas, different lifestyles and a lot of music were exchanged. They shared the same passion for South American music, especially early 1970s Brazilian psychedelia, the simple production techniques, the very sad melodies also found in Spanish folk music, Afro/Cuban/Puerto Rican/NYC fusions and tortilla de patatas. From Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges passing through Paco Ibaíez and Mésica Dispersa, the story of two people finding themselves and each other in music is Apropa’t.

“With Prefuse, living in Spain hasn’t affected me at all. With that, it’s best for me to work in the environment I’m used to making beats in, which is Atlanta. But as far as Savath & Savalas, the environment has affected my music greatly. The whole project has become an almost straight-up, Catalan/Castellano vocal-based folk steez,” Scott says.

Indeed, Apropa’t could not be more different to Scott’s work as Prefuse 73, or previous Savath & Savalas recordings. On the album you will hear both Scott and Eva singing, on all the tracks, with a cornucopia of gentle, melodic sounds from classical guitar, harmonium, concertina, bajo sexto, guitarron, harps and accidents thrown in. Recorded at home, on the outskirts of Barcelona, Apropa’t captures a mood of dreamy intimacy, candlelit reverie and emotional intensity.

Mid-2003, Scott took the mostly sketched songs to Tortoise’s SOMA Studio in Chicago and mixed the tracks with John McEntire, with additionally recorded drums parts from Johnny Herndon, bass by Town & Country’s Josh Abrams, some vocals from Azita Youssefi (Bride of No No) and two horn players in Paul Mertens (Brian Wilson, Stereolab) and Dave Max Crawford (Poi Dog Pondering, The Sea and Cake).

Apropa’t is an exploration or acknowledgement of Scott and Eva, and of what is left by the search.

Savath & Savalas will be cover stars of US magazine URB in January 2004. http://www.urb.com