Prolific music maker, frontman for Brit pop legends Blur, Gorillaz mastermind, and serial collaborator Damon Albarn has announced he will release a new studio album, Dr Dee, on 4th May 2012 (through Parlaphone/EMI). Only two weeks after Albarn and fellow Blur bloke/guitarist Graham Coxon unveiled a new Blur tune – amid rumblings that there would be a new LP in the works soon – the former described the new release as “strange pastoral folk”.
Inspired by the life of John Dee, mathematician, polymath and advisor to Elizabeth I the album combines Albarn’s voice with early English choral and instrumentation alongside modern, West African and Renaissance sounds, and is essentially a musical footnote to the opera that Albarn created of the same name. This latest project quite closely follows Kinshasa One Two by DRC Music (November 11th) a massive collaborative effort between Albarn and a slew of other acts and artists who travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they worked with over 50 contemporary Congolese musicians over 5 days.
Also coming along with the Albarn stamp is a new record from Bobby Womack – The Bravest Man In The Universe – which Damon c0-produced with Richard Russell in the second half of 2011. No news yet on whether Mr Albarn is planning a holiday. Seems unlikely though. Check out Damon’s ruminations on the latest project.
