One of the most enigmatic figures in pop music history Scott Walker (nee Scott Engel) first saw massive success in England with his band The Walker Brothers in 1965. Not really brothers, nor were they British, the trio left Hollywood seeking fame in England, and they found it here for a time with their particular brand of orchestrated pop.

Following the groups demise in 1967 Walker set our to pursue solo stardom in perhaps the most peculiar way possible, with over-the-top baroque pop songs owing more to his idol Jacques Brel, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra than they did to the Beatles or the Stones.

This is his first solo LP from 1967 and features three of his own compositions along with covers of songs by Brel, Tim Hardin, and the Brill Building team of Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann. A true original.

Scott Walker follows his remarkable collaboration with Sunn O))) with this remarkable soundtrack to Brady Corbet’s directorial debut, Walker’s first score work since the Pola X soundtrack in 1999.

Partly inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre’s short story of the same name, The Childhood of a Leader is a tense psychological drama tracing the formative years of a young boy and set against the backdrop of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference that led to the establishment of the Treaty of Versailles.

Walker continues to work with long-term collaborators Peter Walsh (co-producer) and Mark Warman (musical director), with the latter conducting an orchestra comprised of 46 string players and 16 brass for the studio recording.

TRACK LISTING

CD Tracklisting:
1. Orchestral Tuning Up
2. Opening
3. Dream Sequence
4. Village Walk
5. RUN
6. Down The Stairs
7. Up The Stairs
8. The Letter
9. Versailles
10. Cutting Flowers
11. Boy,Mirror,Cars Arriving
12. Third Tantrum
13. Printing Press
14. On The Way To The Meeting
15. The Meeting
16. Post Meeting
17. Finale
18. New Dawn (synth Layout For Cut Scene)

LP Tracklisting:
A1. Orchestral Tuning Up
A2. Opening
A3. Dream Sequence
A4. Village Walk
A5. RUN
A6. Down The Stairs
A7. Up The Stairs
A8. The Letter
A9. Versailles
B1. Cutting Flowers
B2. Boy,Mirror,Cars Arriving
B3. Third Tantrum
B4. Printing Press
B5. On The Way To The Meeting
B6. The Meeting
B7. Post Meeting
B8. Finale
B9. New Dawn (synth Layout For Cut Scene)

When Sunn O))) first approached Scott Walker about appearing on their 2009 album Monoliths & Dimensions, little did they know what it would actually lead to. Four years on, Scott was back with something even more enticing, collaborating on Soused, a body of work he was writing with them in mind.

With a career spanning more than five decades, Scott Walker’s cult status remains as significant as ever before. Experiencing mega-stardom as part of The Walker Brothers before carving out a career as a solo crooner who released a quartet of peerless self-titled LPs that painted rich vignettes of life in the late 60s, Scott went through what felt like a massive U-turn by recording a collection of masterfully challenging albums: Climate Of Hunter (1984), Tilt (1996), The Drift (2006) and Bish Bosch (2013). While there’s some truth to this artistic arc, the actual picture is a lot more complex, with his knack for introducing the disturbingly counter-intuitive and the uncanny into his songwriting dating back to the likes of 'The Plague' (1967) and ‘It’s Raining Today’ (1969).

Centred around the core duo of Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, Sunn O))) have been at the heart of underground and experimental metal since they began in Los Angeles back in 1998, broadening in range to increasingly encompass avant-garde and jazz dynamics to their dark music. Anderson runs Southern Lord (Sunn O)))’s usual label home), whilst O’Malley is involved in a remarkable web of projects as a musician, designer, and label head of Ideologic Organ. They appear alongside extended Sunn O))) member Tos Nieuwenhuizen on this recording.

Recorded in London in early 2014 and produced by Scott Walker and long-time ally Peter Walsh with the assistance of musical director Mark Warman, Soused is a 5-track, 50-minute collaborative record that cements the status of both act’s wide-reaching and otherworldly renown.

Scott Walker will finally release Bish Bosch this December, his long-awaited and first studio album since 2006’s The Drift.

Since the 1960s, Scott Walker has scaled the heights of pop superstardom, produced some of the most revered solo albums of the late sixties, coasted on his laurels during the seventies, then metamorphosed into something very different. The music he has been making at his own pace since the early eighties might be utterly estranged from the songs that made him a household name, but they stem from the privacy he requires to write this complex and hugely inventive music.

Bish Bosch is the latest in Scott’s discography to pursue the line of enquiry he began back in 1978, with his four devastatingly original songs on the Walker Brothers’ swansong, Nite Flights, and continuing through Climate of Hunter (1984), Tilt (1995), The Drift (2006). He has continued to mature and develop in a late style utterly at odds with the music that made him a superstar, a lifetime ago, but which is totally honest, uncompromising and transcendent.

Scott began writing new material around 2009 - whilst also scoring the ROH 2’s Duet For One Voice ballet - recording it sporadically over the following three years. Aided again by co-producer Peter Walsh and joined by the regular core of musicians, Ian Thomas (drums), Hugh Burns (guitar), James Stevenson (guitar), Alasdair Malloy (percussion) and John Giblin (bass).

Musical director Mark Warman also played a prominent role, both as conductor and keyboardist, while guests include trumpeter Guy Barker and pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole, who worked on three of Scott’s midseventies LPs. For three tracks (‘SDSS1416+13B’, ‘Dimple’ and ‘Corps de Blah’), Scott drafted in an orchestra, recording them in The Hall at Air Studios last November.

If The Drift was a dark place, full of scorching orchestral textures and ominous rumblings, Bish Bosch is a tauter but more colourful experience, with greater emphasis on processed, abrasive guitars, digital keyboards and thick silences.

Bish Bosch is released on December 3rd and a comprehensive booklet accompanies the album. For the cover art, Scott worked closely with painter Ben Farquharson and designer Philip Laslett.

TRACK LISTING

‘See You Don’t Bump His Head’
Corps De Blah
Phrasing
SDSS1416+13B (Zercon,
A Flagpole Sitter)
Epizootics!
Dimple
Tar
Pilgrim
The Day The “Conducator” Died

Despite - or perhaps because of - his glacial work rate, Scott Walker remains one of the most influential figures in rock music. He is an icon, a man who turned his back on superficial pop stardom to create some the most resonant and compelling music ever made. Although Scott started writing "The Drift" in the late 1990s, he didn't start recording until late 2004. Working with longtime studio collaborator Peter Walsh (who also co-produced "Climate Of Hunter" and "Tilt") he brought an astonishing array of sounds and textures into the studio - tubax, shawm, flugelhorn, a 36 piece string orchestra, a huge wooden box, and much more besides. The result is a record of immense power and range and almost unfathomable emotional depth. Tracks like "Cossacks" and "Hand Me Ups" rock with a dark, insistent force that's quite unlike anything else in the Walker catalogue - while the vast open spaces of "Clara", "Jesse" and "Cue" open up to admit beauty and horror in equal measure.

TRACK LISTING

Cossacks Are
Clara
Jesse
Jolson And Jones
Cue
Hand Me Ups
Buzzers
Psoriatic
The Escape
A Lover Loves