While Neil Tennant‘s non-PET SHOP BOYS appearances are numerous, usually he ventures out as a singer and occasionally as a singing lyricist, rather than a voiceless wordsmith, yet that’s apparently the role the veteran inhabits on a forthcoming album masterminded by piano player Mark Springer whose impressive body of work harks back to post-punk also-rans RIP RIG + PANIC. Aimed to “explore the intersection of divergent creative approaches-one characterized by radical expression, the other by meticulous craftsmanship” and based on Francisco Goya’s paintings, the record is titled “Sleep Of Reason” – as in “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” – and comes on two discs.
To be out on April 25th, it’s split in three parts, the first featuring Tennant’s vocals and SACCONI STRING QUARTET, the second only the strings, and the last just the keyboard, so that – if opener “Phantoms And Monsters” is anything to go by – promises to deliver quite a sensual experiment.
NEIL TENNANT,
SACCONI STRING QUARTET –
Sleep Of Reason
CD 1
Quintet – Voice And Strings:
1. Phantoms And Monsters
2. A Witch And A Devil
3. Truth Is for Losers
4. Schmutzig
5. My Friend The Monster
6. The Madness Of The Summer
String Quartet:
7. Morn
8. Noon
9. Night
CD 2
Piano Solo:
1. Flight
2. Dark
3. Moon
