Oly Ralfe (Ralfe Band)
Ralfe Band is formed by Oly Ralfe and a number of other collaborators, known for infectious folk influenced songs, vivid surreal lyrics and classical and gypsy inspired instrumentals. In 2023, Ralfe Band return with their fourth studio album Achilles Was a Hound Dog, it is a masterclass of songcraft, drawing on experiences from band leader Oly Ralfe’s recent past. “For me, these songs are almost like an abstract diary where reality, memories and dreamlike narratives collide.”
The las...
Ralfe Band is formed by Oly Ralfe and a number of other collaborators, known for infectious folk influenced songs, vivid surreal lyrics and classical and gypsy inspired instrumentals. In 2023, Ralfe Band return with their fourth studio album Achilles Was a Hound Dog, it is a masterclass of songcraft, drawing on experiences from band leader Oly Ralfe’s recent past. “For me, these songs are almost like an abstract diary where reality, memories and dreamlike narratives collide.”
The last few years have seen Oly Ralfe branch out musically, with his acclaimed solo instrumental record Notes From Another Sea from 2018, a collection of plaintive and intimate piano compositions, as well as the Live at St Pancras Old Church album from 2020, featuring Ralfe’s solo piano with classical ensemble. While Oxford-based Ralfe has never stopped writing or creating, it’s now been ten years since Ralfe Band’s last long player, Son Be Wise from 2013, punctuated by the rowdy one-off single, ‘Sweating It Out’, from 2019. “Because of life events it’s taken far longer than I would have hoped,” says Oly, enigmatically.
Ralfe Band created the soundtrack for the feature film Bunny and the Bull directed by Paul King (dir.Paddington, The Mighty Boosh). The soundtrack album to Bunny and the Bull was released in 2010. The album was well received and scored an 8/10 NME review, “The 22 tracks here recall the deft melancholy of the Amelie soundtrack… The kind of regally drunk spirit last heard on David Dundas’ equally fine Withnail & I soundtrack. Score!”