Paraorchestra, featuring Brett Anderson and Charles Hazlewood, have announced 'Death Songbook', a 12-track collaborative album featuring original compositions and reimagining iconic songs exploring love, loss and transcendence from artists including Echo & The Bunnymen, Mercury Rev , Japan, Black, Depeche Mode, Skeeter Davis, Jacques Brel and Suede. The album features special guest performances from collaborators Nadine Shah, Gwenno, Seb Rochford (Sons of Kemet) and Adrian Utley (Portishead). It is scheduled for release on April 19, 2024 via World Circuit / BMG.
During the pandemic, Charles Hazlewood (founder and artistic director of the pioneering Paraorchestra, the award-winning conductor who has led some of the world's most famous orchestras, and a Sky Arts music ambassador) came up with the idea for an album of “very delicate reimaginings” of some of the most morbidly beautiful and poignantly somber songs, titled 'Death Songbook'. Charles discussed the idea with his friend Brett Anderson of Suede, who found it to be a concept close to his heart and agreed to help select and sing the album's 12 songs. “The only rule” Carlos says, “It's just that all songs have to have a relationship with death or the death of love.”
Brett Anderson's vocal performances, at once chilling, passionate and haunted by desolation, bring a unique dark magic to the Paraorchestra's reimaginings. Articulated by composer and orchestrator Charlotte Harding, each composition offers little in the way of embellishment, instead twisting and reconstructing the songs. Released today, the album's opener, Echo & The Bunnymen's 'The Killing Moon', builds into a haunting mix of trembling strings and lurking electric guitar. Watch the video of the live performance BELOW:
Speaking about the project, Charles Hazlewood said:
“Much of the best art, certainly in my view, is inherently melancholic. Music that is about death, or the death of love, about loss, about anxiety, there is a transcendence in that music. My go-to, whether I'm feeling happy or sad or somewhere in between, will be melancholic music because that's where the catharsis is, that's where art has the most resonance.”
Brett Anderson of Suede said:
“The Songbook of Death was an idea that occurred to Charles during the dark days of lockdown. As soon as he suggested it, I was sold. I loved the idea of curating a set of songs about loss, sadness and regret. I have always found happy songs depressing, it has been the darker songs that have somehow sounded happier to me. Songs about doubt, fear and pain confront feelings we all struggle with, so knowing we are not alone in that struggle can be a silent affirmation of life.”
Nadine Shah said:
“I have worked with Paraorchestra on a few occasions, including on the hottest day imaginable at Glastonbury. Their talent is unsurpassed and I love singing with them. I'm a big fan of both Brett Anderson and Charles Hazlewood, so I certainly wouldn't pass up the opportunity to do this all over again on Death Songbook. “A moment of melancholic magic with a group of fellow goths.”
Gwenno said:
“It's been incredible to be able to contribute to Death Songbook, joining Paraorchestra and Brett on gorgeous arrangements of songs that embrace death in all its facets.”
The paraorchestra recorded most of the 'Death Songbook' album live on an afternoon at the peak of lockdown, socially distanced on Europe's largest opera stage – the Donald Gordon Theater at the Wales Millennium Center in Cardiff. The project returned to the Wales Millennium Center for a live performance in October 2022, where they recorded three additional songs.
Fans now have the opportunity to experience 'Death Songbook' live, as the album was recorded, first-hand. Two special live performances will accompany the album launch: first at London's Roundhouse on April 24, followed by a show at Manchester's Aviva Studios, home of Factory International, on April 26. The last remaining tickets are available. here.
Paraorchestra is the only ensemble in the world made up of disabled and non-disabled professional musicians. He plays an unconventional mix of traditional orchestral, acoustic and electronic instruments and uses assistive technology. This radical group aims to reimagine what an orchestra (and “classical music”) can be in 2024.
'Death Songbook' will be released via World Circuit/BMG on April 19.
Track listing
1. The killer moon
(Composers: Ian McCulloch, Les Pattinson, Will Sergeant and Pete de Freitas)
2. Anonymous
(Composers: Brett Anderson, Leo Abrahams, Leopold Ross, Seb Rochford)
3. Holes (feat. Nadine Shah)
(Composers: David Fridmann, Adam Synder, Jonathan Donahue, Grasshopper)
4. night porter
(Composer: David Sylvian)
5. She still guides me – LIVE
(Composers: Brett Anderson and Richard Oakes)
6. Wonderful life
(Composer: Colin Vearncombe)
7. The next life
(Composers: Bernard Butler, Brett Anderson)
8. He is dead
(Composers: Bernard Butler, Brett Anderson)
9. Enjoy the Silence (feat. Gwenno) – LIVE
(Composer: Martin L. Gore)
10. The End of the World (feat. Nadine Shah)
(Composer: Sylvia Dee and Arthur Kent)
11. My Death – LIVE
(Composer: Jacques Brel)
12. Brutal Lover – LIVE
(Composers: Brett Anderson and Charles Hazlewood)
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