About a month ahead of it’s physical release, The Knife have released their opera soundtrack Tomorrow, In A Year available as a download, as well as providing a streaming preview of the whole album.
It’s their first new material since 2006′s epic Silent Shout - but given that it’s an opera soundtrack, it sounds almost nothing like The Knife (or Fever Ray for that matter). Most of the 2-disc release is composed of atmospheric electronic textures and abrasive sounds, distorted squeals and warble female vocals.
Easy listening it’s not!
Commissioned by Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma to write the music for their opera based on Charles Darwin and his book ‘On the Origin of the Species’, The Knife decided to make this a collaborative process, working with artists Mt. Sims and Planningtorock for the first time, to capture the huge width of the Darwin and evolution theme.
They extensively researched Darwin related literature and articles, with Olof attending a field recording workshop in the Amazon to find inspiration and to record sounds.
CD2 is a bit more accessible, with the preview track Colouring of Pigeons and Seeds providing some familiar territory for fans of their more ‘song-orientated’ albums.
Tracklist:
CD 1
01. Intro
02. Epochs
03. Geology
04. Upheaved
05. Minerals
06. Ebb Tide Explorer
07. Variation of Birds
08. Letter to Henslow
09. Schoal Swarm Orchestra
CD 2
01. Annie’s Box
02. Tumult
03. Colouring of Pigeons
04. Seeds
05. Tomorrow in a Year
06. The Height of Summer
Bonus track
07. Annie’s Box (alt. vocal)
