Tindersticks

Tindersticks grew out of a Nottingham band called Asphalt Ribbons, which lost its record label when Marc Riley's In-Tape Records closed. The name came from a box of German matches singer Stuart Staples found on a Greek beach; the reformed group moved to London that same year. Their music fuses alternative rock with string sections, soul influences and a melancholy that has carried into film work as readily as into the concert hall. The band have recorded several film soundtracks and maintain a long-standing collaboration with the French director Claire Denis.

Their first single, "Patchwork", appeared on their own Tippy Toe Records in November 1992, and their self-titled first and second albums established the signature sound. Later records took different routes: Simple Pleasure leaned towards soul, Can Our Love... extended that direction, and Waiting for the Moon turned inward. After Staples went solo in 2005, the band reunited for a Barbican show in 2006 and recorded The Hungry Saw, released on Beggars Banquet in 2008. Across Six Leap Years followed in 2013, and Distractions, released in February 2021, charted at number 15 in Germany.