Escalade is the song-writing output of Greg Sullivan, currently based in Tokyo. With its beginnings literally in the studio, during a stint as an assistant engineer at a rural artists' retreat, the project and its songs were then flung out on the road. Embarking on a self-imposed exile across the Pacific to New Zealand, the band's first release, and the subsequent basics for a debut album were arranged and recording whilst living in backpacks, and at an artists' loft co-op located in a former printing press in downtown Wellington. The first images of an "escalade" were largely instilled by the image of spiraling up a never-ending stairway towards infinity- a scene from a children's fantasy novel. Also a reference to overcoming the things lying in one's figurative way, journeys internal and external abound.

Along the way, the song 'X's & O's' was cut direct-to-disc by lathe record artist Peter King, and self-released as a 10" single. With several new songs already written, the help of

Wellington's Inca studios was enlisted, and a local drum shop provided a nearby rehearsal space where rhythm parts were diligently pounded out.Due to isolation of various kinds, work on the first album began as a solo-project by default. Fast-forward to a full time life in Japan, where with the help of various players the songs blossomed slowly, pieced together like an audio jigsaw puzzle. Aiming to expand each song to its fullest capacity through the use of a wide variety of instruments, the result is a sonic palette that locks in clock-like synchronicity, yet still knows how to swing. Guitars are woven intricately into patterns that connect the dots between points of reference within each contrasting song. Their mix of spindly and droned chord-progressions leave the chromatic jazz-pop harmonies, twisted to scintillate in a daydream haze. The soundtrack to a rush up that endless staircase rings in exquisite tragedy, like the slow-motion staccati of a crystal chandelier falling to the floor.