There was no shortage of good collaborations last year, but nothing worked quite like Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse’s Dark Night of the Soul. First, there was the impressive list of featured guests (in order by track: Wayne Coyne, Gruff Rhys, Jason Lytle, Julian Casablancas, Black Francis, Iggy Pop, David Lynch, James Mercer, Nina Persson, Suzanne Vega, and Vic Chesnutt). Then there was the notable fashion of releasing the record: an audio-visual gallery installation, for starters, and a limited-edition art book alongside a blank CD-R for use “as you will” (the whole album was soon easily downloadable and has been available for streaming on NPR since last June).
Last spring, for complicated reasons (TMT News), EMI and Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse didn’t exactly work out. Now, almost a year later, Danger Mouse and EMI are talking again and have announced that Dark Night of the Soul is slated for official release worldwide in July. Tragically, Danger Mouse is working alone with EMI this time, in the wake of Sparklehorse a.k.a. Mark Linkous’s death this March. As is only fitting, Dark Night of the Soul will serve as a tribute to Linkous.
Danger Mouse stated: “I told Mark that we’d worked things out with EMI back in January and he was very happy that the album was finally going to be released this year. Mark meant a great deal to a lot of people and I’m grateful to have made music with him and to be a part of his legacy.”
Dark Night of the Soul is also shadowed by the death of Vic Chesnutt, who was featured on the eponymous song of the album and passed at the end of last year. The album is dedicated to his memory.
In happier news, David Lynch has assembled a collection of original photographs to add to the existing artwork for the album. At long last, Dark Night of the Soul — with music on the CD — will be available on July 13 in the US through Capitol Records (for the UK, July 12, via Parlophone/EMI).
• Danger Mouse: http://www.dangermousesite.com
• Dark Night of the Soul: http://www.dnots.com