Phantasmagoria

In 2023, Robert Francis moved to an equine community south of Sunland, set against the San Gabriel mountains. "People come here and say it feels like hill country, West Texas skies and sunsets." Francis set up his studio and had a very busy 2024 recording other artists projects. He began work on his own album in early January 2025. Then the unexpected struck. On January 7th, the Palisades Fire and the Alta Dena fires ripped through Los Angeles.. His sister's Alta Dena house survived, but the neighborhood was crushed. Black soot, lead, and cyanide contaminated their home. After their children's school burned down, his sister and her husband Joachim moved to the East Coast. Her collection of analog synthesizers—a Prophet 5 and Moog Voyager among them—wound up in Francis's studio. These instruments, born from devastation, became the album's beating heart. "I've always been synth-obsessed, but they never fit the folk narrative," Francis explains. Francis played most instruments himself: drums, bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin, organ, piano, synthesizer, flute, percussion, harpsichord, and tubular bells. Additional musicians - Rob Douglas: bass on tracks 3 and 6. Joachim Cooder: drums on "Black Mark". Griffin Goldsmith: drums on "When You Are Alone." Cori Elliott: background vocals. Marla Moya: background vocals on tracks 1 and 6. Amir Yaghmai (The Voidz, Feist): strings. Mike Bolger (Red Hot Chili Peppers): trumpet. Jeff Liffman (organist for the LA Dodgers): organ on tracks 3 and 6. Drew Phillips: background vocals and electric guitar on “When You Are Alone,”. Aeronaut Records' John Mastro notes the album shares similarities with Francis's debut "One By One," recorded when he was eighteen. "It's true what they say—you have your whole life to write your first album. Your sophomore has just a few months." Phantasmagoria allowed Robert the time to explore.