Antony & the Johnsons Tap Bjork for 'Swanlights'

Antony & the Johnsons Tap Bjork for 'Swanlights'

Antony Hegarty, the otherworldly general of chamber burst collective Antony & the Johnsons, undo the emotionally draining album "The Crying Light" last year passing over is already prepared on release an expansive follow-up. "Swanlights," due Oct. 6 over Secretly Canadian, comment a duet among Björk (who previously tapped Hegarty because 2007 album "Volta") equally origin equally a 144-page supplemental book full connected with the singer's artwork, photography and writing.

 

Antony & the Johnsons feat. Björk, "Flétta"

 

The release was preceded by "Thank You for Your Love," an EP of incorporate including John Lennon's "Imagine" and Bob Dylan's "Pressing On," equally origin as a smile-inducing claim track such will also emerge over the full-length. Hegarty make known to Billboard almost covering a Beatle, represent disco in concord and what he hopes on accomplish among his untrodden multimedia release.

 

This is the second time customary a ream you've undo a five-song EP a scarcely any months before a full-length. Do you see these releases as previews connected with your albums?

 

["Thank You because Your Love"] really is more like a single, but then you end up putting a few extra shanty on it since you're releasing it on a CD. With the last EP, it very breadth consider the central theme of the record. There isn't exigently precise theme shanty because this record, so I partial despise to put on something open-hearted.

 

What inspired the Bob Dylan also John Lennon covers?

 

The Dylan incorporate I enjoy recorded on the constant time as the cover of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" for [2007 film "I'm Not There"], and I didn't know the song, but once I inspire into it, I apprehending it turned out pretty. And "Imagine" was an audacious choice, by reason of it's sort of hallowed ground. But I limited it to the first person on parcel out it a unified resonance. It's obviously not an improvement, passing over customary a way, it foreshadows the themes of this album, that are about changing ecology also grappling among a sense connected with hopelessness about the future.

 

Why was the break between "Swanlights" and last year's "The Crying Light" so much curtailed than the four-year hiatus following 2005's "I Am a Bird Now"?

 

Well, unusual connected with this material was recorded on the constant time as "The Crying Light." Even postern we over and done "Crying Light," I reside in the shop also was mixing extra tracks that would lead to this piece. In a way, it's a pard piece, passing over it's precise different. It didn't seem be sweet on a despise all on hold off on releasing these shanty separately, because I enjoy a long gestation process. I could write a shanty 10 youth sooner I undo it, which is and often the case.

 

What precedence on the decision to undo an lack scroll among "Swanlights"?

 

I've regularly been visually engaged also eat up prospect within my notebooks customary the privacy of my control process. This is the first all I'm rivet help my visual ideas in such a defined way. I certainly had a patch of insecurity about doing it passing over I've complexion of inspire gone it . . . also the work feels authentic to me. I want the squeak to pursue my ingenious muse customary a gathering connected with different mediums. It's a luxurious position on be in.

 

How did the shanty "Flétta" come together among Björk?

 

We recorded the shanty in Jamaica on the constant time we recorded the "Volta" stuff. She rented a hulking piano, develop in also improvised unusual vocals, and I stayed relevant all dark and edited them into a structure. It's exciting on duty her in the studio, considering she's uninhibited albeit she's in her environment. Also, peach next on her perch is in reality challenging, because she's comparable an expansive singer, and I regularly frisk like I was just trying on keep up.

 

You've guested on electronic and disco projects because represent be sweet on Hercules & Love Affair also Oneohtrix Point Never. Do you ever show yourself prospect these sector on your own?

 

It's funny -- it's easier because me to imagine doing theater under the name Antony & the Johnsons than doing a disco record. I cerebrate I would pauperism to be true to unusual kind connected with acoustic parameter in it. Johnsons because me is and about making work customary a community. As very much as [a solo album], I'd consider anything, but I don't experience what the prospect holds.