Penny Rimbaud from CRASS and Youth from KILLING JOKE have released a stunning new video from their forthcoming collaborative project.
'We The Mountain, We The Sea' finds Rimbaud waxing poetic over music by Youth, featuring the solo violin of sixteen-year-old Isabella Kolaczynska. The video was filmed and edited by Agi K.
Recorded and mixed in 2011 and remixed eight years later, the album Corpus Mei evolved through Youth presenting Rimbaud with a finished track, over which the latter would recite his own poetry, each piece coming together in a single take. Fellow Crass member Eve Libertine also recorded one track while contributing lyrics and backing vocals to others. Further overdubs were provided by Kolaczynska, Louise Elliott on flute and tenor sax, Kate Shortt on cello and Tony Barber on electric bass.
“Recording and writing this album was an intense and wonderful experience,” says Youth. “Penny is one of the great visionary poets of our generation. A seer and prophet… crying to the universe, alone up on the mountain. Part Blake, part John the Baptist and part Buddha. His is the limb nailed to the cross of our cultural banality. Such a narrative demands a suitably epic backdrop. Composing and producing this music, as a foil to Penny’s beautiful and terrifying, almost biblical monologues, has been one of my greatest achievements in over 40 years of making music. The themes reveal Penny’s almost psychic pre-cognition of today’s dystopia and the sudden slo-mo apocalypse were all living through now. Nevertheless, it leaves you with a feeling of hope, inspiration and many positive possibilities. This was a great challenge and a deep channeling in itself. Despite the serious nature of the work we were mostly laughing and really enjoying each other’s company, the sessions were filled with joy and love.”
"Throughout the recording of Corpus Mei the symbiosis was proved – we are as one, above as below," adds Rimbaud. "Trust that wisdom, and creative love will prevail: the very core before the apple.”
'We The Mountain, We The Sea' is available to stream/download here.
Set for release through One Little Independent on 19 November, Corpus Mei is available to pre-order here.
Pic by Gee Vaucher