Fox Bat Strategy - New Music From David Lynch

David Lynch has always been my preferred auteur/ television producer/ film director/ quirky individual. (In an odd twist, he has also recently become my favourite weather person.) However, it’s been two recent projects that found him delving into the world of music that solidified his position in this blogger's heart.

No doubt you are aware of his notorious collaboration with Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse. The Dark Night of the Soul project has received a great deal of attention of late and will, in all likelihood never see proper release. News today then, that an original seven track album is due out made up for the disappointment of the former ‘non-release’. Fox Bat Strategy: A Tribute to Dave Jaurequi, for which Lynch wrote the lyrics and produced is now due at the end of this month. The tribute goes to the guitarist and vocalist on the album, who was a session player for Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Jaurequi passed away in 2006, and the music has sat on Lynch’s shelves since then according to Entertainment Weekly.

Dave Jaurequi was not a singer," explains Lynch. "He was a guitarist, a fantastic one, but I asked him to sing and speak these lyrics of mine, because I had a hunch that proved correct: he had great phrasing, and I love the grain of his voice....I think about him a lot, and wish we'd been able to record more than the seven songs that are on this album.

Fox Bat Strategy has some typical Lynchian qualities: the 1950s sound and a palpable attempt at innocence that somehow succeeds at being sinister... Good God, at the end of this I will probably end up liking David Lynch even more. Fox Bat Strategy comes out June 30th from ADA and David Lynch Music.

Dark Night of the Soul Streaming at NPR

UPDATE: From Billboard.com - Danger Mouse And Sparklehorse Album Release Scrapped

The latest installment in NPR's Exclusive First Listen series, where they offer streaming versions of albums before they're released, is the mysterious new collaboration between Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous. Could this be any more brilliant? I would swear dear reader that projects like this one were tailor made for me. I can not tell you how much this one appeals to me in every way. In a perfect world, this is exactly the kind of thing I would love to be doing myself…

Personal aspirations aside, until very recently, there wasn’t a lot known about Dark Night of the Soul besides its portentous title. Details have emerged that the mysterious record accompaniment includes contributions from the likes of Frank Black, Iggy Pop, the Flaming Lips and the Shins' James Mercer. Danger Mouse and Linkous apparently wrote and recorded the material, with plenty of help from all those guest musicians, to be packaged with a book of photography by visionary director David Lynch.

Regretfully a dispute with EMI Music has delayed the release of the audio component of this package. (Details to come.) Whether the album sees the official release or not, get over to NPR and listen to it while you can, because this is great stuff and demands your attentions.

The Dark Night of the Soul book is now available here and apparently limited to 5000 copies. No tunes as of yet but you will get a nifty cd-r for now, to do as you see fit.

Fingers crossed that this thing gets released.