INCLUDING TWO NIGHTS EACH IN NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES:
JULY 26 & 27 – MADISON SQUARE GARDEN AUGUST 4 & 8 – SHRINE AUDITORIUM
TICKETS ON SALE THIS FRIDAY, MARCH 18 AT 10am LOCAL TIME
Radiohead has confirmed a series of live shows which, together with the previously announced festival dates (and a few more to follow), will complete the band’s touring schedule for 2016.
The headline shows include two nights each at Madison Square Garden in New York and the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Tickets for most shows go on sale this Friday, March 18 at 10am local time. Tickets for Mexico City will go on sale this Wednesday, March 16th at 11am local time.
The newly announced shows are:
MAY 20 – AMSTERDAM – HEINEKEN MUSIC HALL MAY 21 – AMSTERDAM – HEINEKEN MUSIC HALL MAY 23 – PARIS – LE ZENITH MAY 24 – PARIS – LE ZENITH MAY 26 – LONDON – ROUNDHOUSE MAY 27 – LONDON – ROUNDHOUSE MAY 28 – LONDON – ROUNDHOUSE
JULY 26 – NEW YORK – MADISON SQUARE GARDEN JULY 27 – NEW YORK – MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
AUGUST 04 – LOS ANGELES – SHRINE AUDITORIUM AUGUST 08 – LOS ANGELES – SHRINE AUDITORIUM
OCTOBER 03 – MEXICO CITY – PALACIO DE LOS DEPORTES OCTOBER 04 – MEXICO CITY – PALACIO DE LOS DEPORTES
In order to minimize secondary ticketing, restrictions will apply and tickets for all shows will be limited to 2 per order. Please check www.radiohead.com for further information; restrictions may vary from venue to venue.
In addition, Radiohead will be headlining the following previously announced festival shows, with the addition of a new festival headline appearance on June 1 at Les Nuits des Fourvieres in Lyon, France.
JUNE 01 – LYON, FRANCE – LES NUITS DES FOURVIERES JUNE 03 – BARCELONA, SPAIN – PRIMAVERA SOUND JUNE 17 – REYJKAVIK, ICELAND – SECRET SOLSTICE JULY 02 – ST. GALLEN, SWITZERLAND – OPEN AIR JULY 08 – LISBON, PORTUGAL – NOS ALIVE FESTIVAL JULY 29-31 – MONTREAL, CANADA – OSHEAGA MUSIC AND ARTS FESTIVAL AUGUST 20 – OSAKA, JAPAN – SUMMERSONIC FESTIVAL AUGUST 21 – TOKYO, JAPAN – SUMMERSONIC FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 11 – BERLIN, GERMANY – LOLLAPALOOZA FESTIVAL
“The Community of Hope” is the second single taken from PJ Harvey’s forthcoming album, The Hope Six Demolition Project, to be released 15th April on Vagrant Records, and is available to stream here.
The Hope Six Demolition Project draws from several journeys undertaken by Harvey, who spent time in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Washington, D.C. over a four-year period. The album was recorded last year in residency at London’s Somerset House and is produced by Flood and John Parish.
Both singles from The Hope Six Demolition Project, “The Wheel” and “The Community of Hope”, are available instantly via iTunes when pre-ordering the album.
PJ Harvey and her band will perform a number of festival dates across Europe this summer, including London’s Field Day on Sunday 12th June, and a return to Glastonbury on Sunday 26th June, twelve years after her last appearance at Worthy Farm.
PJ HARVEY
2016 TOUR DATES
06/04/16 – Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound 06/05/16 – Paris, France – We Love Green Festival 06/07/16 – Athens, Greece – Release Athens 06/08/16 – Istanbul, Turkey – Zorlu Performing Arts Centre 06/10/16 – Porto, Portugal – Primavera Sound 06/12/16 – London, UK – Field Day 06/17/16 – Helsinki, Finland – Sideways Festival 06/18/16 – Moscow, Russia – Ahmad Tea Music Festival 06/20/16 – Berlin, Germany – Zitadelle Spandau 06/22/16 – Zagreb, Croatia – INMusic 06/24/16 – Beuningen, Netherlands – Down The Rabbit Hole 06/26/16 – Somerset, UK – Glastonbury 06/27/16 – Cornwall, UK – Eden Sessions 06/29/16 – Gdynia, Poland – Open’er Festival 06/30/16 – Roskilde, Denmark – Roskilde Festival 07/02/16 – Werchter, Belgium – Rock Werchter 07/03/16 – Herouville St Clair, France – Beauregard Festival 07/07/16 – Trenčín, Slovakia – Pohoda Festival 07/08/16 – Vienna, Austria – Harvest of Art Festival 08/11/16 – Oslo, Norway – OYA 08/12/16 – Gothenburg, Sweden – Way Out West 11/06/16 – Reykjavik, Iceland – Iceland Airwaves
FIRST-EVER NORTH AMERICAN SOLO TOUR BEGINS MARCH 21 IN PHILADELPHIA
“Confidence without bravado, an analogue man refusing to succumb to the throw away values of a digital age – it’s an evolution that’s worth celebrating.”—DIY MAGAZINE
“An instinctive and honest sublimation of a state of mind, full of intriguing revelations but leaving enough questions unanswered to keep you ever seeking more in its grooves.”—MOJO
“This is a bold confessional and one made all the stronger by music that’s creative and daring”—THE QUIETUS
In anticipation of his first-ever North American solo tour and the physical CD release of Matador, Gaz Coombes is pleased to unveil the live video for the title track to his Mercury Prize-nominated album.
The video features a minimalistic yet compelling performance of “Matador” by Coombes, Ben Walker, Garo Nahoulakian, Loz Colbert (Ride), Nick ‘Growler’ Fowler and the stunning 32-member Southbank’s Voicelab choir backing Coombes, and was recorded live at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall of February 2015. The song, which The Line of Best Fit declares as a “moving song of defiance, a tear jerker that’s also heart-warming,” is featured as the closing track on the album. View the video here: http://smarturl.it/gazlive
To commemorate the upcoming tour, Matador will be receiving a special US limited edition colored vinyl edition release, which includes two exclusive bonus tracks not previously available: “Oscillate (Solo) Live from Galway” and “Detroit (Solo) Live from Brighton.” Fans can grab their pre-orders NOW for both the limited edition vinyl and standard CD formats. Matador is currently available via digital platforms including iTunes and Spotify.
Coombes will be kicking off his hotly anticipated North American solo tour in Philadelphia on March 21st. See below for all confirmed US dates and don’t miss out on catching one of these rare, must-see performances! Grab your tickets now: http://www.gazcoombes.com/gigs/
03/21/16 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts 03/22/16 – Vienna, VA – Jammin Java Music Club & Cafe 03/24/16 – New York, NY – Rockwood Music Hall 03/25/16 – New York, NY – Rockwood Music Hall 03/26/16 – Boston, MA – David Friend Recital Hall 03/28/16 – Toronto, ON – The Drake Hotel 03/30/16 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall 04/01/16 – San Francisco, CA – Slim’s 04/02/16 – Los Angeles, CA – Masonic Lodge @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery
April 13 – Fresno, CA – SaveMart Arena April 15 – Portland, OR – Moda Center April 17 – Seattle, WA – Key Arena April 19 & 20 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena April 30 – Little Rock, AR – Verizon Arena May 2 – Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford Premier Center
Paul McCartney has confirmed the first seven dates of his brand new One On One tour.
As with the launch of every new Paul McCartney tour, One On One promises to unveil a dazzling re-designed set, dozens of classics from the most beloved catalog in popular music, spanning Paul’s entire career–as a solo artist, member of Wings and of course as a Beatle—and no shortage of surprises.
One On One will open April 13 with Paul’s first ever appearance in Fresno, CA at the SaveMart Arena. OnApril 15, Paul will play the Moda Center in Portland, OR, ending the near-11-year stretch since his last show in the Rose City on the US Tour in 2005. The One On One tour will then proceed to Seattle, WA, for an April 17 evening at the Key Arena—a return engagement Seattle has been anxiously awaiting since the last notes of the encore featuring the living members of Nirvana that wrapped Paul’s sold out Safeco Field extravaganza in 2013. On April 19 and 20, Paul will roll into the Rogers Arena in Vancouver BC for two nights, returning to Vancouver for the first time since the magical evening at the BC Place Stadium during the final week of his On The Run tour in 2012. And on April 30 and May 2, Paul will visit two more U.S. cities for the very first time, appearing respectively at the Verizon Arena in Little Rock, AR, and the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, SD.
One On One is the first new Paul McCartney tour since the juggernaut that was Out There came to its stunning conclusion on October 22, 2015 with Paul’s first ever concert in Buffalo, NY. Out There’s finale capped off an incredible 2015, in which the tour played 27 shows in 22 cities throughout the world, with highlights including Paul’s historic debut in South Korea—where the crowd at Seoul Olympic Stadium’s refusal to stop singing the refrain to “Hey Jude” literally forced Paul to reprise the song in the first encore, playing that signature bassline live for the first time—three nights at the Tokyo Dome and one at Budokan, a sold out stand at Paris’ majestic Stade de France, more than a dozen packed arena shows across the U.S., UK and Europe, and triumphant headlines at festivals such as Firefly, Roskilde, and Lollapalooza in Chicago—the latter a tour de force performance for a 100,000-strong crowd featuring a guest appearance from Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard on “Get Back.”
The Paul McCartney live experience is everything any music lover could ever want from a rock show—and so much more: Nearly three hours worth of the greatest moments from the last 50 years of music, dozens of songs that have formed the soundtracks of our lives. Paul and his band have played an unparalleled range of venues and locations: outside the Coliseum in Rome, Moscow’s Red Square, Buckingham Palace, The White House, a free show in Mexico for over 400,000 people, the last ever show at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park where The Beatles played their final concert 1966, and even one performance broadcast live into Space! Featuring Paul’s band of the last 10+ years – Paul “Wix” Wickens (keyboards), Brian Ray (bass/guitar), Rusty Anderson (guitar) and Abe Laboriel Jr (drums) – the show is never anything short of life-changing.
The One On One Tour will debut a brand new production, as always utilizing state of the art audio and video technology and to ensure an unforgettable experience from every seat in the house. Employing massive screens, lasers, fireworks and, of course, a staggering selection of the best songs ever written or performed, every Paul McCartney show promises a once in a lifetime evening that transcends and elevates the potential of live music.
Tickets for the newly announced dates will be on sale March 14 at 10am local time.
American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginningThursday, March 10 at 10am local time through Sunday, March 13 at 10pm local time.
“a steadily shifting palette of sounds: a delicately played bass-and-guitar intro, a curtain of feedback that comes through in a magisterial drift, tribal locomotion, cherubic harps. It’s a welcome new look for the band”—FLOOD
“dynamic… epic”—ROLLING STONE
Another indication of the impending scope and grandeur of Explosions In The Sky’s The Wilderness (outApril 1 on Temporary Residence Ltd) was revealed yesterday when Zane Lowe premiered album track “Logic of a Dream” on his Beats 1 show.
Now available to download, stream or watch with hypnotic visual accompaniment at http://smarturl.it/LogicYT, “Logic of a Dream” expands on the promise of galvanic first single “Disintegration Anxiety” with another of the most ambitious Explosions In The Sky compositions to date: Plaintive opening strains of gently drizzling guitars are punctuated by power chords and overtaken by cascades of tribal rhythmic patterns before cohering into a taut yet gentle Motorik resolution—movingRolling Stone to call the song “dynamic” and “epic,” while Flood has hailed the song’s bold arrangement as “a welcome new look for the band.”
The Wilderness is out April 1st, but be sure to grab your pre-order here. See below for all announced shows, and stay tuned for more updates.
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY
THE WILDERNESS TOUR 2016
* New dates in bold
03/25/16 – Austin, TX – Paramount Theatre **Matinee show 03/25/16 – Austin, TX – Paramount Theatre **Evening show + 04/19/16 – Glasgow, UK – Barrowland 04/20/16 – Dublin, Ireland – Vicar Street 04/22/16 – Manchester, UK – Albert Hall 04/23/16 – Bristol, UK – Colston Hall 04/24/16 – Brighton, UK – Brighton Dome 04/25/16 – London, UK – Royal Albert Hall + 05/02/16 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre ^ 05/03/16 – San Diego, CA – North Park Theatre ^ 05/04/16 – San Diego, CA – North Park Theatre ^ 05/05/16 – Los Angeles, CA – Theatre at The Ace Hotel +^ 05/06/16 – Los Angeles, CA – Theatre at The Ace Hotel +^ 05/07/16 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater +^ 05/09/16 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot ^ 05/10/16 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre ^ 05/13/16 – New Orleans, LA – The Joy Theater ^ 05/15/16 – Atlanta, GA – Shaky Knees Music Fest ^ 05/17/16 – Norfolk, VA – The NorVa ^ 05/18/16 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club +^ 05/19/16 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club ^ 05/20/16 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore Philadelphia ^ 05/21/16 – Durham, NC – Moogfest 05/30/16 – Rome, Italy – Orion 05/31/16 – Milan, Italy – Magnolia
06/02-04/16 – Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound 06/04/16 – Mannheim, Germany – Maifeld Derby 06/06/16 – Hamburg, Germany – Markthalle 06/07/16 – Brussels, Belgium – Ancienne Belgique + 06/08/16 – Brussels, Belgium – Ancienne Belgique 06/09/16 – Paris, France – Trianon 06/13/16 – Oslo, Norway – Rockefeller (with Low as Special Guest) 06/14/16 – Stockholm, Sweden – Berns 06/15/16 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Pumpehuset 06/16/16 – Helsinki, Finland – Sideways 06/17/16 – Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands – Best Kept Secret 06/20/16 – Berlin, Germany – Huxleys 06/21/16 – Zurich, Switzerland – Rote Fabrik 06/22/16 – Lausanne, Switzerland – Les Docks 07/22-24/16 – Fuji Rock Festival
Massive Attack have today premiered the brand new video for “Voodoo In My Blood“. Directed by Ringan Ledwidge, the video is available to watch right now here: http://po.st/VIMBvideo
“Am I involved?… Someone said the girl in the video looks like me. I have been to the Joe Strummer subway. I did have a strange encounter there once.” – Rosamund Pike
“Voodoo In My Blood” is taken from Massive Attack’s Ritual Spirit EP, which was written and produced by the band’s Robert del Naja and long term studio collaborator Euan Dickinson. The track features vocals by Young Fathers, described by Del Naja as “currently the best band in the world”. The EP also features the return of Tricky (on “Take It There”) in addition to collaborations with Roots Manuva(“Dead Editors”) and newcomer Azekel (“Ritual Spirit”).
“Voodoo In My Blood” is the second film to be made for the Ritual Spirit EP, It follows the Hiro Murai-directed video for “Take It There“, which starred the Oscar-nominated actor John Hawkes.
Meanwhile, following a run of sold out UK shows, Massive Attack continue to tour throughout Europe. The new live show is designed by Robert del Naja and long time visual collaborators United Visual Artists, with support on all dates coming from Young Fathers.
In anticipation of Explosions In The Sky’s The Wilderness (out April 1 on Temporary Residence Ltd), the band has teamed up with The Creators Project to proudly premiere a stunning and alluring video capturing renowned artist Jacob van Loon and his process of creating the album artwork. Featuring an exclusive score based on The Wilderness track “The Ecstatics,” the short film vibrantly showcases gently brush-stroked watercolor and painstakingly detailed layers of color through time-lapse. The movie was directed by Jeremy Bird and Jeremy deVine (founder of the band’s longtime label Temporary Residence Ltd), and filmed by Jacob van Loon.
Explosions In The Sky’s guitarist Mark T. Smith spoke about working with van Loon:
“When we were looking for artwork for our record, we became immediately enthralled with Jacob van Loon’s stuff. His existing artwork had all those elements we wanted from the concept of the record: a terror, a beauty, a structure, an abstraction, a wildness… but his resulting artwork was largely a surprise to us. It came as a finished piece and we were blown away.”
In other news, the band is preparing to kick off what is already proving to be a hot-ticket tour—its presales alone having crashed servers. Having sold out a slew of dates (Austin, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Brussels) and at the behest of extremely popular demand, additional shows have been tacked on for Austin (which now includes a matinee performance), DC and Brussels. See below for all announced dates and be sure to grab your tickets before they disappear as well!
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY
THE WILDERNESS TOUR 2016
03/25/16 – Austin, TX – Paramount Theatre **Matinee show 03/25/16 – Austin, TX – Paramount Theatre **Evening show + 04/19/16 – Glasgow, UK – Barrowland 04/20/16 – Dublin, Ireland – Vicar Street 04/22/16 – Manchester, UK – Albert Hall 04/23/16 – Bristol, UK – Colston Hall 04/24/16 – Brighton, UK – Brighton Dome 04/25/16 – London, UK – Royal Albert Hall + 05/02/16 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre 05/03/16 – San Diego, CA – North Park Theatre 05/04/16 – San Diego, CA – North Park Theatre 05/05/16 – Los Angeles, CA – Theatre at The Ace Hotel + 05/06/16 – Los Angeles, CA – Theatre at The Ace Hotel + 05/07/16 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater + 05/09/16 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot 05/10/16 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre 05/13/16 – New Orleans, LA – The Joy Theater
05/14-15/16 – Atlanta, GA – Shaky Knees Music Fest 05/17/16 – Norfolk, VA – The NorVa 05/18/16 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club + 05/19/16 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club 05/20/16 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore Philadelphia 05/21/16 – Durham, NC – Moogfest
06/02-04/16 – Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound 06/06/16 – Hamburg, Germany – Markthalle 06/07/16 – Brussels, Belgium – Ancienne Belgique + 06/08/16 – Brussels, Belgium – Ancienne Belgique 06/09/16 – Paris, France – Trianon 06/13/16 – Oslo, Norway – Rockefeller (with Low as Special Guest) 06/14/16 – Stockholm, Sweden – Berns 06/15/16 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Pumpehuset 06/17/16 – Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands – Best Kept Secret 06/20/16 – Berlin, Germany – Huxleys 06/21/16 – Zurich, Switzerland – Rote Fabrik 06/22/16 – Lausanne, Switzerland – Les Docks
Paul composes first ever audio Mojis in partnership with Skype for Valentines Day
New partnership harnesses the universal language of music to share content in a new and original way
Love Moji’s – music by Paul McCartney – available now on Skype
Today, a collaboration has been announced between the world’s most celebrated living musician and its foremost video chat and online communication platform: Paul McCartney and Skype have partnered to launch a new range of animated love themed Moji’s for Valentine’s Day featuring exclusive new McCartney music coupled with Skype’s animated designs. This new set contains ten specially created Moji’s.
Paul McCartney’s career is unparalleled. His music has reached hundreds of millions of people globally, spanning generations. Be it through live performances, composing pop songs, classical works, electronic music, film themes and scores, and most recently composing for the most anticipated video game of the last decade – Destiny, Paul has continued to explore new ways to reach people. Paul’s music brings people together and breaks down language and cultural barriers.
Mojis are short animated clips that you can use during Skype chats when words just aren’t enough. These Moji’s will be completely unique to hundreds of millions of Skype users and feature sound as well as video, giving the users chat a whole new dimension. This collaboration will allow Skype users to use this medium to convey love through music in a new and original way.
Skype has long since been used by people all over the world to communicate and share personal moments. Like music, Skype can be used anywhere in the world to share the love, regardless of the user’s location. Visual emoticons have become increasingly more popular in recent years and have been used to communicate everyday emotions. Today’s announcement marks the launch of a new kind of digital expression – the audio emoticon. Music has always had the power to express a range of different feelings and sharing an audio emoticon is a fun way of expressing feelings via brand new Paul McCartney music.
Paul was sent a brief by Skype to compose for specific emotions. More used to writing chart-topping songs around the three-minute mark than expressing an emotion musically in a number of seconds Paul embraced the task.
Talking about the experience Paul said: “It turned out to be a great laugh at the same time as challenging because you suddenly realise you’ve got to compress a musical interpretation of an expression into less than five seconds. It was like doing a huge crossword puzzle and coming up with all these solutions. And at the same time it was musical so it was great practise for me in the studio.”
Paul recorded his compositions over a week at his Hog Hill Mill studio in Sussex. Using a variety of instruments including guitars, keyboards, drums, xylophone and his voice. In order to give the whole set a signature sound Paul started the compositions on a Moog synthesizer, Paul explained: “I wanted it to sound sort of electronic so I wanted the signature to sound electronic rather than acoustic guitar, for instance. So I got the overall signature on the Moog in order to give it a modern flavor.”
Speaking about the collaboration Gurdeen Pall, Corporate Vice President at Skype said: “As one of the most iconic artists of all time, Paul McCartney is known for expressing his passion through music. When it comes to composing love songs there is no other artist in the world who has a better track record. Paul’s music has touched the hearts of millions of people all over the world. We are thrilled to lend some of his magic to a set of Mojis conveying the world’s most powerful emotion, love, through music and art. It was a great creative challenge for us to create the animations to match his legendary sound.”
PJ Harvey releases the videofor “The Wheel,” the first track to be taken from her forthcoming albumThe Hope Six Demolition Project, to be released on April 15th through Vagrant Records. Her last body of musical work was 2011’s Let England Shake.
PJ Harvey and her band will be perform at these festivals across the summer:
06/04/16 – Barcelona, Spain – Primavera Sound
06/04-05/16 – Paris, France – We Love Green Festival 06/12/16 – London, UK – Field Day
06/17-18/16 – Helsinki, Finland – Sideways Festival 06/18/16 – Moscow, Russia – Ahmad Tea Music Festival 06/20/16 – Berlin, Germany – Zitadelle Spandau 06/22/16 – Zagreb, Croatia – INMusic
06/24-26/16 – Beuningen, The Netherlands – Down The Rabbit Hole 06/29/16 – Gdynia, Poland – Open’er Festival 06/29-07/02/16 – Roskilde, Denmark – Roskilde Festival 07/02/16 – Werchter, Belgium – Rock Werchter 07/03/16 – Herouville St Clair, France – Beauregard Festival 07/07/16 – Trenčín, Slovakia – Pohoda Festival 07/08/16 – Vienna, Austria – Harvest of Art Festival 08/11/16 – Oslo, Norway – OYA
08/11-13/16 – Gothenburg, Sweden – Way Out West
————————
Director’s Notes on “The Wheel”
Polly and I wanted to initiate a project together working in places we thought interesting and relevant. We met through her seeing my photographs from Afghanistan, and I later showed her more work, including some from the war in Kosovo in the late 1990s. I had experience and contacts in both places and Polly had long held a fascination for Afghanistan and was caught up following the events in Kosovo when it was topical. Both had troubled histories and because of the news were familiar in name to everybody; the detail and nuance was maybe lacking or forgotten. I had returned to Kosovo in 2004 when the conflict erupted again, finding unresolved disputes and a deep frustration on every side with the pace and handling of events.
An invitation came to both of us early in the summer of 2011. We were asked to attend a screening of the complete 12 Short Films I had made for the Let England Shake album, and to be part of a Q and A afterwards at the Dokufest in Prizren, southern Kosovo. Not something Polly would normally do, yet there was something inevitable about it all and it would get the project started. So we went.
The song “The Wheel” has the journey to Kosovo at its centre. Who is to say what else has influenced and informed its creation? The sight of a revolving fairground wheel in Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje near the capital Pristina is the concrete reference point for the title. I can tell you its date – 4th August 2011- from the piece of footage I made as we walked up the street to our parked car near the train station. It was a passing observation of a commonplace image, one of many that day. While Polly took notes I might have been more interested in something else happening across the street and not bothered to shoot or even have seen it. That day we were gathering material in a blind, optimistic endeavour; characteristic of the way we tend to work together. We had no idea if any of it would ever be seen, heard or would make sense.
Was that sight alone the inspiration for the song? Without being told the stories of people who had suffered during the war, without visiting villages abandoned through ethnic cleansing and cycles of vengeance, without experiencing the different perceptions of people with shared histories, could the song have been written?
I made a return trip to Kosovo in December 2015, armed this time with the knowledge of how the project had developed. In addition to Kosovo, there had been journeys to Afghanistan and Washington D.C. A book, The Hollow of the Hand, had been published of Polly’s poems and my photographs and a words/images/music launch on the stage of the Royal Festival Hall over two nights. A recording session turned art installation in Somerset House which I filmed. The album was mastered and on its way. Disparate elements finally coming together of a project that started with the premise of curiosity and interest.
Making the film for “The Wheel” involved a mix of footage from the first trip in 2011, rehearsals I shot of Polly in London and the most recent trip to Kosovo. The enormous refugee crisis in Europe had been news for months. I spent some time on the Greek and Macedonian borders, and in Serbia, before travelling into Kosovo. It was happening in and through territories associated with recent conflicts in Kosovo and the wider Balkans. The idea of cycles, wheels and repetition once again being all too apparent and necessary to make.
We salute the life of Nesim Kryeziu (1938 – 2016) the wonderful man in the film performing a traditional dance with a glass of water on his head at a wedding in his village of Brezne in the Opoja region of Kosovo.
Massive Attack return with the Ritual Spirit EP. Released today Thursday, January 28 via Kobalt Label Services in the US and Canada, the EP features the return of Tricky (on “Take It There”) in addition to collaborations with Young Fathers (“Voodoo In My Blood”), Roots Manuva (“Dead Editors”) and newcomer Azekel (“Ritual Spirit”).
The EP was written and produced by Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja and long-term studio collaborator Euan Dickinson. A second Massive Attack EP, written and co-produced by Daddy G, will be released in the spring, with an album to follow later in the year.
Ritual Spirit EP track list:
01. Dead Editors (Massive Attack & Roots Manuva)
02. Ritual Spirit (Massive Attack & Azekel)
03. Voodoo In My Blood (Massive Attack & Young Fathers)
04. Take It There (Massive Attack, Tricky & 3D)
To mark the EP release, Massive Attack have today premiered a brand new video for “Take It There.” Directed by Hiro Murai and starring Oscar-nominated actor John Hawkes, the “Take It There” video is available to view here: http://po.st/TakeItThereVideo.
The release of the Ritual Spirit EP follows the launch of Massive Attack’s “Fantom” app last week. Developed by a team including the band’s Robert del Naja, “Fantom” is a sensory music player that remixes and reforms songs uniquely using a variety of environmental variables including location, movement, time of day, heartbeat and the integral moving image camera. More information on Fantom at http://www.thefantom.co/
Meanwhile, Massive Attack are currently touring the UK and Europe. The new live show is designed by Robert del Naja and long time visual collaborators United Visual Artists, with support coming fromYoung Fathers.
The full dates are:
MASSIVE ATTACK LIVE 2016
01/28/16 – Manchester, UK – The Apollo (SOLD OUT) 01/30/16 – Birmingham, UK – O2 Academy (SOLD OUT) 01/31/16 – Portsmouth, UK – The Guildhall (SOLD OUT) 02/01/16 – Brighton, UK – The Dome (SOLD OUT) 02/03/16 – London, UK – Brixton O2 Academy (SOLD OUT) 02/04/16 – London, UK – Brixton O2 Academy (SOLD OUT) 02/05/16 – London, UK – Brixton O2 Academy (SOLD OUT) 02/07/16 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Tap 1 (SOLD OUT) 02/09/16 – Alzette, Luxembourg – Rockhal, Esch 02/10/16 – Brussels, Belgium – Palais 12 02/12/16 – Milan, Italy – Fabrique (SOLD OUT) 02/13/16 – Milan, Italy – Fabrique (SOLD OUT) 02/14/16 – Padova, Italy – Geox Theatre (SOLD OUT) 02/16/16 – Cologne, Germany – Palladium 02/17/16 – Berlin, Germany – Tempodrom (SOLD OUT) 02/18/16 – Berlin, Germany – Tempodrom (SOLD OUT) 02/20/16 – Vienna, Austria – Gasometer 02/21/16 – Munich, Germany – Tonhalle (SOLD OUT) 02/22/16 – Munich, Germany – Tonhalle (SOLD OUT) 02/24/16 – Eindhoven, Netherlands – Klokgebouw 02/25/16 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Heineken Music Hall (SOLD OUT) 02/26/16 – Paris, France – Zenith (SOLD OUT) 02/27/16 – Paris, France – Zenith (SOLD OUT)
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