Dangermouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of The Soul

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Dark Night Of The Soul is a beautiful, haunting album byDanger Mouse and Sparklehorse, featuring a remarkable roll call of guests. News of this unparalleled project began tocirculate in early 2009 sparking widespread anticipation and excitement, however its music was never made officially available. Now, following months of talks, Dark Night Of TheSoul has been rescued from ‘lost album’ status and will bereleased worldwide in July.

Danger Mouse, also know as Brian Burton, is an acclaimed artist and producer thanks to thewidescreen musical landscapes he has created for Gorillaz, The Good The Bad & The Queen, TheBlack Keys, Beck and others, as well as his own artist-led adventures with Gnarls Barkley andBroken Bells. Sparklehorse is the pseudonym of Mark Linkous, a stunningly talented yet often-overlooked singer and multi-instrumentalist admired for his intimate melancholic country-folk.Despite Danger Mouse’s preferred director-like approach of crafting whole albums of sonic sceneryinto which collaborators enter, his enthusiasm for Linkous’s output led him to produce just a handfulof songs for the fourth Sparklehorse LP, Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly of A Mountain. Thepair became friends and resolved to make an entire album together. They drafted a wish list ofsingers to appear on their new record, tentatively dubbed Sparklemouse or Dangerhorse, and whatwould later become Dark Night Of The Soul began to evolve.

Dark Night Of The Soul opens with a trio of sublime psychedelic rock songs featuring The FlamingLips on the mournful, melancholic Revenge, ever-inventive Welshman Gruff Rhys, the album’sonly non-US artist, waging a Just War and Jason Lytle telling the biographical tale of Jaykub. Thepace and intensity increases with Little Girl, Angel’s Harp and Pain which feature The Strokes lynchpin Julian Casablancas, Pixies frontman Black Francis and punk pioneer Iggy Pop respectively. Elsewhere, Linkous reunites with Nina Persson, formerly of the Cardigans, andsinger-songwriter Vic Chesnutt, both of whom also appear on the 2001 Sparklehorse LP, It’s AWonderful Life. New Yorker Suzanne Vega sings The Man Who Played God and the industrial-tinged Insane Lullaby is pregnant with the promise of James Mercer and Danger Mouse’s subsequent Broken Bells project.

Despite the guest vocalists never receiving specific direction, nor hearing any of the other material,Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse observed common themes emerging as the album took shape.The songs were dark, dreamlike and explored war, death, pain, twisted dreams and other haunting subjects. Wanting to investigate a possible visual dimension, Danger Mouse approached iconic director David Lynch whose excitement for the project resulted in a series of original photographsand, remarkably, him contributing two songs; Star Eyes (I Can’t Catch It) and the title track which christened the project. Lynch’s imagery provides a spectacular filmic element to Dark Night Of TheSoul and has featured in an audio-visual gallery installation, a limited edition art book and will beincorporated into the artwork for this already unique project.

Whilst the forthcoming official release of Dark Night Of The Soul is undoubtedly a cause forcelebration, it is also shadowed by sadness following the recent passing of the already much missed Mark Linkous. Dark Night Of The Soul now stands as a de facto tribute to this well-lovedand brilliantly gifted artist. The album is also dedicated to the memory of Vic Chesnutt. Dark Night Of The Soul will be available from 12 July via Parlophone/EMI.

(Limited to 5k worldwide, includes: 2 x gatefold LP, 2 x CD - complete album and complete instrumentals, 3 x lobby cards, 1 x poster, 1 x photo print, 1 x 12" booklet with David Lynch photography -