Blackfield is a collaboration between multi-instrumentalist and Porcupine Tree leader Steven Wilson and controversial Israeli pop star Aviv Geffen. After years of mutual admiration, the pair met to discuss a set of concert appearances in 2000 and, further drawn together by their similar interests in the classic rock albums of the '60s and '70s, wound up composing their first song under the Blackfield moniker. It would be another year before they reconvened in a Tel Aviv studio, and their plans to cut an EP soon ballooned into an 18-month period of sporadic writing and recording sessions, finally capped, after further delays, by the release of Blackfield's eponymous debut by Koch Records in early 2005. A second album, recorded in a relatively short six-month burst of activity and unimaginatively titled Blackfield II, followed in 2007. After this, Wilson's other commitments began to take precedence and more of the songwriting duties were handed over to Geffen, as reflected in the title of the third album, Welcome to My DNA, released in 2011. With Wilson's decision to focus on his solo career, on the fourth album, Blackfield IV, his input was reduced to that of contributor rather than full collaborator. Subsequently, the album -- which featured vocal contributions from ex-Mercury Rev frontman Jonathan Donahue and Brett Anderson of Suede, and was released in August 2013 -- more closely resembled Geffen's poppy solo output, but with its epic string arrangements, never entirely lost sight of the '60s psychedelia which had so influenced Wilson's progressive work. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia & John D. Buchanan, Rovi
