Celebrated Australian songwriters Nick Cave and Warren Ellis are set to launch their new album ‘White Lunar’.
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis go back a long way. After collapsing out of the ruins of psychobilly pioneers The Birthday Party Nick Cave found solace in Warren Ellis, in whom he sensed a kindred spirit.
The pair formed the crutch of The Bad Seeds, going on to release a host of acclaimed albums. In addition to this Cave and Ellis performed in the group Grinderman, as well as scoring the elegiac Westerns ‘The Proposition’ and ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward
Robert Ford’.
Having worked together for more than 15 years, the pair seem to have an uncanny working relationship. Genuine Renaissance men, ‘White Lunar’ collects music from the afore-mentioned soundtracks as well as previously unreleased material.
Released through Warp, the album collects some of the pair’s finest soundtrack work. The Nick Cave penned Australian outlaw story ‘The Proposition’ set the tone, with the pair constructing a suitably mournful score.
Blending Ennio Morricone style soundtrack work with alt country, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis hit upon a new of bringing musical life to the pictures they saw in front of them. Often as brutal and uncompromising as the films themselves, the pair’s music has its roots in American folk yet is never afraid to rampage over the rules.
In addition to their Western epics, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis also scored Geoffrey Smith’s harrowing ‘The English Surgeon’. More recently, the pair united on ‘The Girls Of Phnom Penh’ an exploration of the Cambodia sex trade.
Music from these films and more is set to be collected on the forthcoming double CD collection ‘White Lunar’. The first CD will be devoted to previously released works, while the second will focus on unreleased material.
Containing four pieces each named after their creators, the sequence is constructed as a suite and should be listened to continuously.
Best known for the crunching blues-rock of The Bad Seeds and Grinderman, Cave and Ellis’ journey into the world of film scoring has produced some of the most spectacular work of their career to date.
With some spectacular additions alongside familiar material, ‘White Lunar’ is set to add to their reputation in some style.
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis are set to release ‘White Lunar’ on September 21st.
