Ebbsfleet International

Having departed from London's St Pancras station, your first stop en route to Gare du Nord in Paris is Ebbsfleet International, a giant empty glass shed in the middle of nowhere, about to be endowed with unlikely pop prestige:

Following its first two album releases by Rotifer (and Papernut Cambridge, Gare Du Nord Records announces Ebbsfleet International – a download compilation album of exclusive tracks, mutual covers, alternate takes and contributions from friends, related bands and collaborators, some of them loosely based on the theme of train travel, to celebrate the label's launch in appropriate fashion.

There are 18 tracks by 11 different artists – Gare Du Nord acts Ralegh Long and Robert Rotifer trade cover versions with cult 70's songwriting icon John Howard; there's another mutual song swap between Ralegh and alt-folk conjuror Thirty Pounds of Bone; there's an exclusive track from Darren Hayman recorded in a French garden; Papernut Cambridge cover Darren Hayman and Picturebox, who in their turn rework the Papernuts' own autobiographical pop-band anthem and throw it back. Rotifer and his Austrian pals Bo Candy & His Broken Hearts collaborate to translate and reinterpret Viennese novelist and songwriter Ernst Molden's The Seagulls, while Molden returns the favour with "Jetzt wo ich da bin" (a translation of Rotifer's "Now That I'm Here")

Add to that a first outing for Rapid Results College (Mike Stone from Television Personalities and Rotifer and Rob Boyd from The Hillfields' new project), a filmic instrumental from Johnny White aka Fairewell and the sherbet-lemon pop of Arthur In Colour and you've got a pretty damn fine collection to introduce the new label and their friends.