Damon Albarn's Solo Album to feature Natasha Khan

At a recent August press interview, musician Natasha Khan who is known for her stage name Bat for Lashes said that she recorded a new song for Damon Albarn's solo LP.

In the article Khan describes how she recently recorded a track with Damon Albarn: “If I could go back and tell the 15-year-old me that I’d just sang with Damon for his new record, she’d probably wet her pants with excitement,” she said. “I had such a massive crush on him when I was younger.”

Bat For Lashes is the pseudonym of British songwriter and singer artist Natasha Khan. Half English and half Pakistani, Khan's music style is bold, colorful and loud. Her songs often feature thunderous marching band drums, desert guitar, ballet school piano, harpsichord, sub-bass snarls, hand-claps and naive beats, with the women fluidly switching and swapping their instruments between songs.

It's not a wonder why Damon picked Bat for Lashes as one of his collaborators. Her track on Damon Albarn's new solo album is bound to be interesting and dynamic, and will likely reflect her usual varied style of instrument choice and beat.

Damon himself is also fond of using myriad instruments and sound devices to create his music, often with experimental elements embedded in the songs.

There have been no further news on when Damon's new album will be released. For now, the Blur frontman is busy with band tours all across the world.

For those interested in more about Bat for Lashes, check out her official website here.

Damon Albarn to revive The Good, The Bad and The Queen for Greenpeace charity gig

Lifted from the Greenpeace blog:

We’ve got some really exciting news for you, Damon Albarn, Tony Allen, Paul Simonon and Simon Tong will come together for a special one-off The Good, The Bad and The Queen gig celebrating 40 years of Greenpeace and the arrival of the new Rainbow Warrior III in London.

The Good, The Bad and The Queen are big supporters of Greenpeace. Bassist Paul Simonon said, “We've always supported Greenpeace and their amazing work. It should be a great night, we're really looking forward to it."

Our Executive Director John Sauven added "I can’t think of a better way to celebrate our 40th Anniversary than with The Good, the Bad and the Queen. What makes it really special is that this show will coincide with the arrival of Greenpeace's brand new Rainbow Warrior to its new mooring on the Thames.”

The gig will be on Thursday 10 November at London’s Coronet, New Kent Road. Tickets are on sale this Friday at 9am. So we’ll see you there right?

Tickets are available from this Friday 7th October at 9am from the usual outlets and on 0844 249 1000 / 0844 811 0051 / 020 7734 8932 / 0844 844 0444 / coronettheatre.co.uk /gigsandtours.com / ticketline.co.uk

Damon Albarn making new album for Warp - July 2011

Damon Albarn's opera Doctor Dee has now reached the end of its run as part of the Manchester International Festival and has received almost universal acclaim and positive reviews. 


"I'm making an album for Warp," Damon reveals in The Guardian's latest article on Doctor Dee, his new opera . This is the only new thing that the article reveals, oh, and that Damon stumbled quite a lot around the stage during his opera....


Warp is a Sheffield-based record label usually renowned for techno. 


"I'm taking six young English producers with me and we'll make it in a week. Then I'm going on a six-
week holiday to dispel rumours I'm a workaholic." said Damon.


And my thoughts on this is exactly northernmonkey's, which goes like this:


A six weeks holiday should recharge the creative juices for getting started on a new Blur album!!!


Lastly, watch the recent short interview Damon Albarn did for BBC Two Culture Show on July 12th 2011 about his opera. Quite interesting. 





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Damon Albarn's new opera 2011 - Doctor Dee

Damon Albarn has written and will star in a stage show about 16th Century alchemist, astrologer and spy John Dee.

A musical work based on Elizabeth I's medical and scientific adviser, Doctor Dee will have its premiere in July at the Manchester International Festival.

It will then be staged at the home of the English National Opera as part of London's Cultural Olympiad programme.

The Manchester festival will also feature the debut of Bjork's new show during a three-week residency.

Other original productions will be created for the event by immersive theatre company Punchdrunk, film-makers The Quay Brothers, comedian Victoria Wood and performance artist Marina Abramovic.

Manchester International Festival director Alex Poots said the event, which started in 2007 and takes place every two years, was "a home for major artists to realise their most ambitious projects".

Albarn's Chinese opera Monkey: Journey To The West was a highlight of the first Manchester International Festival four years ago and the Blur and Gorillaz singer will present his next production at the city's Palace Theatre.

Albarn did not appear in Monkey but will perform in Doctor Dee.

The show has been co-produced by the English National Opera and the London 2012 Festival and will be staged at the London Coliseum next year.

It will be directed by Rufus Norris, who staged Don Giovanni at the ENO last year and whose Broadway revival of Les Liaisons Dangereuses was nominated for five Tony Awards in 2008.

"It will be a big, spectacular show," Mr Poots said. "I know that Damon's passionate about it and he's already written some incredibly beautiful songs, some anthemic songs."

Bjork will launch the Manchester International Festival on 30 June with a show based on her new album Biophilia.

The project combines her interests in music, science and nature and is billed as a "multi-media project encompassing music, apps, internet, installations and live shows".

There will be an app for each song and the singer has invented a range of new instruments for the shows, including a 30-foot (nine-metre) pendulum that harnesses the earth's gravitational pull to create musical patterns.

She will perform six times over three weeks at the Campfield Market Hall.

Punchdrunk will return after creating the acclaimed theatrical experience It Felt Like A Kiss with Damon Albarn at the last festival. Their new show, The Crash of the Elysium, will be the company's first for children.

Elsewhere, the Quay Brothers, celebrated for their dark, disjointed films and animations, will team up with Russian-born violinist Alina Ibragimova to stage chamber music in a promenade setting.

Amadou & Mariam will play a show in total darkness

Amadou and Mariam, a blind musical duo from Mali, will attempt to stage the world's first concert in total darkness, while comedian Johnny Vegas will present a new theatre show.

Victoria Wood is writing and directing That Day We Sang, about the 1920s Manchester Children's Choir, which will open at the Manchester Opera House.

'Artistic powerhouse'

Hollywood actor Willem Dafoe is to star in The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic alongside the Serbian-born performance artist. The production will feature music written and performed by Antony Hegarty from the Mercury-prize winning Antony and The Johnsons.

The festival will also involve rapper Snoop Dogg, singer Sinead O'Connor, artist John Gerrard, the Halle Orchestra and French composer Mark Andre.

Manchester City Council's executive member for culture and leisure, Councillor Mike Amesbury, said the festival "makes a massive contribution to the cultural offering of our great city and has helped establish us on the world stage as a leading artistic powerhouse".