(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)

After the breakup of the This Kind Of Punishment, Graeme Jefferies first formed Breathing Cage and then the Sombretones (with Craig Mason on vocals), still with Robert Key on drums.

Messages For The Cakekitchen (Flying Nun, 1988 – Ajax, 1993) finally presented him as a solo singer-songwriter: ballads like All The Colours Run Dry sound like home recordings on acoustic guitar for early Pink Floyd albums, even if the dreamlike chants of Nothing That's New and The Simple Tapestry Of Fate evoke more the bleak sense of solitude of Nick Drake. The mournful tone of some songs (Reason To Keep Swimming and Prisoner Of A Single Passion) gives the album an almost gothic quality.

Jefferies then decided to form a trio with Rachel King (bass) and again Robert Key, naming it Cakekitchen, and released a first EP: as if by magic, his music became dynamic and catchy, leaving behind the aristocratic aloofness that had always marked it.

After moving to London in the summer of 1990, Graeme recruited Keith McLean (bass) and Huw Dainow (drums) and released over the next two years the albums Time Flowing Backwards (Homestead, 1991) and World Of Sand (Homestead, 1992), two non-chronological collections of material recorded in previous years by the two lineups (Charles Hayward, former This Heat, appears on drums on some tracks).

Time Flowing Backwards is representative of their eclecticism, of the fact that Graeme Jefferies’ music is defined not by sound but by style: Dave The Pimp, Airships, and Machines are rough electric excursions, while Silence Of The Sirens is a surreal ballad in the style of early Velvet Underground.

On World Of Sand, the arrangements take center stage: World Of Sand is an acoustic duet with Alastair Galbraith on violin, Don't Be Fooled By The Label shines with piano and viola chimes, and Walking On Glass is driven by tribal rhythm and guitar fuzz. Sometimes icy (This Perfect Day), sometimes effervescent (Dogs And Cats), Jefferies is at the height of his emotional expression. Graeme is ultimately both curious and spectacular, thanks to his Tibetan-monk baritone and the chamber-trio arrangements that recall especially the most abstruse works of Kevin Ayers and John Cale. His music leaves the impression of a sharp form of claustrophobia, always tinged with gothic shades.

Far From The Sun (Homestead, 1993), the first fully English-recorded album, is even more austere and measured than its predecessors, with Cakekitchen pushing their concept of polyphony to the extreme (Overexcited mixes a tape of “found” noises with acoustic guitar with the naturalness of a baroque duet, Far From The Sun begins with a downpour of water), and the leader channels his bitter philosophy into songs that are sometimes complex (Stranger Than Paradise, Man In The Mirror) and sometimes simple (Greater Windmill Street Blues).

Jefferies changed the lineup again (in practice, just himself and a drummer) for Stompin` Thru The Boneyard (Merge, 1995), an album marred by a glam tendency (This Questionnaire and Mr Adrian's Lost In His Last Panic Attack), but eclectic enough to allow incursions into power-pop (Tell Me When You Lie and Another Sad Story), and even into balladry (Even As We Sleep). The album mainly forges a suggestive form of progressive folk with The Mad Clarinet and Hole In My Shoe.

The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea (Merge, 1996), recorded by the same duo, continued even more boldly in that direction with the hypnotic Bald Old Bear, the dissonant overture of Escape To Fire Island, the loops of Take It Easy With Me, and especially the eleven-minute Old Grey Ghost (half pure cacophony, half catchy pop). Everything Turned Orange and I Know You Know are atmospheric without relying on spectacular effects. Cakekitchen remember themselves as a rock band on You Make A God Of Money (which sounds like a soft Lou Reed boogie) and Baby I Luv You (almost like the Stooges). The experiments are sometimes indulgent, but the whole has few precedents.

A careful “scriptwriter” of music, Graeme Jefferies has always been very aware of the power of pauses, the suggestive power of what happens between two notes, not just the notes themselves. The ultimate goal of his music seems to be to evoke states of trance, zen-like concentration, and transcendence into other forms of existence. However, he has still not managed to repeat the miracle of Messages.

Unfortunately, Jefferies opted for a more conventional rock and pop format on the Cakekitchen's How Can You Be So Blind (Hausmusik, 2003).

Graeme Jefferies reorganized the Cakekitchen to record Everything's Drivng You Crazy Coz You Just Can't Get What You Want (2007), mostly devoted to acoustic folk-pop ballads.