Jack Ellister – or Jacek Janiszewski – is normally associated with the Fruits de Mer label for which he has made a couple of albums and singles. Fruits de Mer is a label mainly focused on releasing cover versions of psychedelic music from the original era made by contemporary artists. Ellister’s debut album was however all originals – although very much in classic psychedelic style. Rough sounding, energetic and inspired, it is a great album. Since then though, his output has been all covers.
Much of the stuff Fruits de Mer puts out is quite a lot of fun, but it doesn’t really lend itself to repeated listening. If I am going to listen to that stuff, I simply rather go to the originals.
For that reason, I haven’t been listening all that much to Jack Ellister the last two years. Until now, that is, because all of a sudden he is back with a CDr of originals, called ‘Telegraph Hill.’
Although the focus is on a solitary voice with acoustic guitar, there are also drums, bongos, cymbals and weird electronic sounds.
The tone here is much more subdued and forsaken than the early Pink Floyd feel of the debut album, but it still has very much of that rough-edged charm and individuality.
The whole thing is very short, 9 tracks clocking in at just 21 minutes, and the overall impression is that these are demos, sketches that might eventually be turned into something more substantial. But maybe they won’t be and that is fine, as what is here is rather magical as it is. ‘Telegraph Hill’ honestly feels more genuinely psychedelic than 99% of the stuff others put out under that flag at the moment.
As far as I know, Jack has only made a hundred copies. My copy is number 52 and I just got it a couple of days ago, so chances are that a few still are left.
I would sincerely recommend you to get in touch with him and get a copy before it is too late. You can find Jack here for example:
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