Brett Anderson from Suede has participated in the creation of “The Death Songbook,” a 12-track album that teams with Paraorchestra to “re-imagine iconic songs exploring love, loss and transcendence” by musicians including Depeche Mode, Japan, and Suede. The album will feature guest appearances from Seb Rochford of Sons of Kemet and Gwenno, Nadine Shah, and Adrian Utley of Portishead. Paraorchestra is the world’s only ensemble of professional disabled and non-disabled musicians playing traditional orchestral, acoustic, and electronic instruments while also using assistive technology.
“The Death Songbook” has a relationship with death or the death of love according to Anderson. “So much of the greatest art, certainly from my point of view, is intrinsically melancholic,” said Hazlewood, founder and artistic director of Paraorchestra. “Music, which is about death, or the death of love, about loss, about anxiety, there’s a transcendence in that music. My go-to, whether I’m feeling happy or sad or somewhere in between, will be melancholy music because that’s where the catharsis is, that’s where art is most resonant.”
‘The Killing Moon’ from Echo & the Bunnymen is among the featured songs with a cover version by Anderson. “The Death Songbook” is set for release on April 19 under the BMG label and is intended for two live performances on April 24 in London and April 26 in Manchester at Roundhouse and Manchester’s Aviva Studios, respectively.
“The Death Songbook” project was thought up by Charles Hazlewood during the harsh days of the Covid-19 lockdown. Anderson immediately accepted, as creating a suite of songs about loss, sadness, and regret was a good idea. “Songs about doubt and fear and grief confront feelings we all struggle with, so to know that we are not alone in that fight can be quietly life-affirming,” Anderson explained.
The bulk of the album was recorded live across Europe’s largest opera stage, the Donald Gordon Theatre at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, during lockdown, and three additional songs were recorded in October 2022 when the project returned for a live performance
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