We are delighted to announce that on April 19 2024 we are releasing our Death Songbook on 2LP, CD and Digital via BMG’s World Circuit label.
Click here to pre-order the album.
Death Songbook is a groundbreaking collaboration featuring delicate reimaginings of cult classics by Echo and the Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, Suede, Mercury Rev, David Bowie & Jacques Brel, Skeeter Davis, Japan and Black.
Performed by Paraorchestra, Suede’s Brett Anderson, and Charles Hazlewood, these exquisite new versions were orchestrated by Charlotte Harding and feature Nadine Shah and Gwenno with instrumentation by Seb Rochford (Sons of Kemet) and Adrian Utley (Portishead).
The first single from the album – Paraorchestra, Charles, and Brett’s take on Echo and the Bunnymen’s ‘The Killing Moon’ is out now.
Speaking about the project Charles Hazlewood said:
“So much of the greatest art, certainly from my point of view, is intrinsically melancholic. Music which is about death, or the death of love, about loss, about anxiety, there’s a transcendence in that music. My go to, whether I’m feeling happy or sad or somewhere in between, will be melancholy music because that’s where the catharsis is, that’s where art is most resonant.”
Brett Anderson said:
“The Death Songbook was an idea Charles came up with during the bleak days of lockdown. As soon as he suggested it, I was sold. I loved the idea of curating a suite of songs about loss and sadness and regret. I’ve always found happy songs depressing, it’s been the murkier themes that have somehow sounded more joyous to me. Songs about doubt and fear and grief confront feelings we all struggle with, so to know that we are not alone in that fight can be quietly life-affirming.”
Nadine Shah said:
“I’ve worked with Paraorchestra on a few occasions now, one on the hottest day imaginable at Glastonbury. Their talent is insurmountable and I love to sing with them. I’m a great admirer of both Brett Anderson and Charles Hazlewood so an opportunity to do this all again on Death Songbook was one I would be sure not to pass up. A moment of melancholic magic with a bunch of fellow goths.”
Gwenno said:
“It’s been amazing to be able to contribute to Death Songbook, joining Paraorchestra and Brett on gorgeous arrangements of songs that embrace death in all its facets.”
We are marking the launch of Death Songbook with two live dates in London and Manchester, featuring Gwenno as a special guest vocalist.
Roundhouse, London – Wednesday 24 April 2024
Factory International, Manchester – Friday 26 April 2024
It’s been our ambition since the outset to give Death Songbook a physical release and we are immensely proud to finally be doing so, and give thanks to everyone involved in bringing this project into being: all of our talented musicians, the production and recording teams, the team at World Circuit and BMG, Sky Arts, Wales Millennium Centre, and of course our core funders who make our work possible: Arts Council England, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Mark Leonard Trust, The Linbury Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation, and the John Ellerman Foundation.
