The London Book of the Dead CD/Book

£14.00

An exquisite limited edition, full colour, hard back book/album with extraordinary artwork by illustrator Catherine Anyango telling its story in a sequence of collaged tableaux together with texts by The Clerkenwell Kid and ‘I Lucifer’ author Glen Duncan.

The Independent ***** Album of the Week, Andy Gill

Guardian **** "this rich and strange album is surely one of the week's most intriguing offerings."

WORD "a largely celebratory occasion, a boxful of immaculately drawn soft-centred pop confections. These heart-pricking songs speak to us all."

 

Description

This special limited edition book of the album is a song-life-cycle; it references the Bardo Thodol/Tibetan Book of the Dead’s description of the passage from the end of one existence to the beginning of another – all set against the backdrop of the imagined city. The old jazz, shellac sounds and samples of previous albums are here joined by an organic electronica.  Most songs are underpinned by a kind of joyful poignancy – even those which appear at first drenched in sadness.  And even when the going gets dark there’s an element of wryness never far from the surface – witness ‘Kix’ : a gentle send up of the Cole Porter standard ‘I Get a Kick out of You’ or the album’s gospel tinged emotional conclusion ‘Bringing the Body Back Home when the whole narrative turns back on itself. 

Long term collaborators Clive Painter, Jacques Van Rhijn, Jed Woodhouse and Don Brosnan are joined this time by The Puppini Sisters, cult theatre star Aurelia Thierree and Guillotines’ vocalist Joe Coles. The single 'Last Words is the featured song in upcoming US indie film “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist” starring “Juno”'s Michael Serra.

The book is presented in an exquisite, full-coloured, hard-back book of extraordinary artwork by illustrator Catherine Anyango, telling its story in a sequence of collaged tableaux together with music and texts by The Clerkenwell Kid and ‘I Lucifer’ author Glen Duncan.

"Beautiful...giddily recalls Gainsbourg, Pulp, Cole Porter, early Disney soundtracks and seedy postwar revue bars"
(Album of the Week,
Sunday Times )
 
The Independent ***** Album of the Week, Andy Gill
 
The Independent **** , "I't's a Wonderful Life' almost cockleroasts as evocatively as the film. It's that good." Kevin Harley
 
Telegraph "Utterly unique, utterly delightful"
 
 Guardian **** "this rich and strange album is surely one of the week's most intriguing offerings."

WORD "a largely celebratory occasion, a boxful of immaculately drawn soft-centred pop confections. These heart-pricking songs speak to us all."