For many years now, Mark Mulholland has been travelling and playing music, sometimes with bands, sometimes solo, sometimes with an assortment of musicians met along the way. This is clearly reflected in the manner in which he has recorded his new album „The Cactus and the Dragon“. The initial tracks were recorded in a makeshift studio in Berlin by Australian engineer Dugald Jayes, who recorded Mark's first solo album, „The Devil on the Stairs“, and the rest of the recordings have been done in studios, kitchens and sitting rooms in Berlin, Paris, Antwerp and San Francisco. The album features guest appearances from a wide range of Mark's musical collaborators, including Chris Hughes (True Spirit, Nina Hagen, Mick Harvey, Rowland S. Howard, Nikki Sudden), Armelle Pioline (Holden, SuperBravo) Joe Armstrong (Two Dollar Bash, Methylated Spirits, Impure Thoughts), Olaf Hund, Boris Kontorowski (Lord Mouse and the Kalypso Katz, Teenage Terror, the Comedian Pharmacists), Carey Lamprecht (Emily Jane White, Jolie Holland), Jérémie and Timothée Regnier (The New Government, Haussmann Tree, Rover), Inneke 23 (The Lipstick Painters), Robert „Fearless Bob“ Angst (The Cry Babies), Sean Moore, (The Slaters), Orit Shimoni (Little Birdie), Stéphane Doucerain (Nikki Sudden, Nitro 17, Impure Thoughts), Jeffrey Luck Lucas and Allen Devine.

Mark brought the disparate elements of the recording to Monobeat Studio in Berlin, where they were mixed and mastered by Stewart Hill. The package was completed with striking cover art by Andy Leuenberger.

The songs cover a wide variety of styles, with jangly pop rock on „Something New“ and „World Spins Round“, delicate and intricate folk on „Another Falling Star“,„Sweet Taste“, and „This Time of Night“ (the last two of which feature top class string arrangements by Jeff Lucas), boisterous country on „Middle Lane Driver“, and catchy swing on „Why D'you Treat me This Way“. „Footsteps on the Stairs“ has the potential to become a jazz standard, and the title track is full-on psychedelic rock. Despite the stylistic diversity, and the varied instrumentation, lineups and recording environments, the album works as a cohesive whole, reflecting the multiple facets of Mulholland's accomplished songwriting skills..

Although there is an impressive array of guest musicians, the temptation to put in superfluous elements has been resisted, with tight arrangements and the structure of the songs cut back to the essential, as can be seen by the fact that 9 of the 13 songs come in at under 3 minutes.