THE TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLERA GUARDIAN, TELEGRAPH, THE TIMES, IRISH TIMES, ROUGH TRADE, MOJO, CLASH, ROLLING STONE, UNCUT BOOK OF THE YEARFrom award-winning musician and composer Warren Ellis comes the unexpected and inspiring story of a piece of chewing gum. FEATURING AN INTRODUCTION BY NICK CAVE'Warren has turned this memento, snatched from his idol's piano in a moment of rapture, into a genuine religious artefact.'NICK CAVE'Such a mad, happy book about art and music and obsession. I'm so glad I got to read it.

It made the world feel lighter.'NEIL GAIMAN'In praise of meaning-rich relics and magical things. Totally heartwarming project.'MAX PORTER'A unique study of a fan's devotion, of transcendence and of the artistic vocation - it's got depth and great warmth. It's a beautiful piece of work.'KEVIN BARRYI hadn't opened the towel that contained her gum since 2013.

The last person to touch it was Nina Simone, her saliva and fingerprints unsullied. The idea that it was still in her towel was something I had drawn strength from. I thought each time I opened it some of Nina Simone's spirit would vanish.

In many ways that thought was more important than the gum itself. On Thursday 1 July, 1999, Dr Nina Simone gave a rare performance as part of Nick Cave's Meltdown Festival. After the show, in a state of awe, Warren Ellis crept onto the stage, took Dr Simone's piece of chewed gum from the piano, wrapped it in her stage towel and put it in a Tower Records bag.

The gum remained with him for twenty years; a sacred totem, his creative muse, a conduit that would eventually take Ellis back to his childhood and his relationship with found objects, growing in significance with every passing year. Nina Simone's Gum is about how something so small can form beautiful connections between people. It is a story about the meaning we place on things, on experiences, and how they become imbued with spirituality.

It is a celebration of artistic process, friendship, understanding and love. 'This is such a beautiful f*@king book. Thank you, Warren.

I highly recommend this motherf*@ker.'FLEA'A beautifully written book about the power of music and objects. I powered through it in two days.'COURTNEY BARNETT'A moving, inspiration insight into a beautiful mind.'JIM JARMUSCH'The year's most eccentric and joyful musical memoir.'DAILY TELEGRAPH (Books of the year)'[Nina Simone's Gum] is a metaphor for [Ellis'] creativity - the blossoming of a small idea into something bigger and bolder - but also a journey inside the impulsive, improvisatory mind of Warren Ellis, his passions, obsessions and superstitions.' OBSERVER'[A] beautiful, strikingly idiosyncratic book - part memoir, part essay, part conceptual art project, all testament to humans at their strangest and best . .

. [Ellis] sees signifiance where others might not.'MOJO'A glorious piece of object fetishism . .

. Marvel as Ellis' collection of eccentric personal mementos morphs into a celebration of the intangible wonder of music.'UNCUT'Wonderful.' THE TIMES'The most peculiar book I've ever read.' CRAIG BROWN, MAIL ON SUNDAY'Delightful . .

. A joy from start to finish.' BIG ISSUE'A joyous work full of love, connection, creativity and gratitude.' THE SPECTATOR'Completely charming and joyful . .

. glorious.' LA REVIEW OF BOOKS'Beautiful . .

. remarkable.' NEW EUROPEAN

Originally available as a digital-only release, Invada Records and Lakeshore Records present the original score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis to the film La Panthère Des Neiges (AKA The Velvet Queen).

The soundtrack is one of Ellis and Cave’s most heartfelt and haunting film projects. 

High up on the Tibetan plateau. Amongst unexplored and inaccessible valleys lies one of the last sanctuaries of the wild world, where rare and undiscovered fauna lives. Vincent Munier, one of the world’s most renowned wildlife photographers takes the adventurer and novelist Sylvain Tesson (In the Forest of Siberia) with him on his latest mission. For several weeks, they’ll explore these valleys searching for unique animals and try to spot the snow leopard, one of the rarest and most difficult big cats to approach.

Ellis explains how Cave and himself came to be involved : “There is something about the heart of this film that draws you in. I realised after a day, that I wanted to do whatever it took to compose an entire original score. The film deserved to have its own musical voice. I booked five days and asked Nick if he could come in for a day to write a theme song and play some piano. He saw the film and stayed for four days. In the end we made what I think is one of the most beautiful films we have ever worked on. One of my favourite experiences ever working on a project. The stars are the animals in all their wild glory, as we have never seen them before, and man in reverence and wonder.”

TRACK LISTING

L'attaque Des Loups
Les Cerfs
Antilope
La Bête
Les Yaks
Des Affûts Elliptiques
Les Nomades
La Grotte
Les Princes
La Neige Tombe
Les Ours
Un Être Vous Obsède
L’apparition/We Are Not Alone

Carnage is a new album by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, recorded over a period of weeks during lockdown.

Although the pair have composed & recorded many soundtracks together, and Ellis is a long-term member of The Bad Seeds, this is the first time they have released an entire album of songs as a duo.

Cave describes the album as "a brutal but very beautiful record nested in a communal catastrophe."

"Making Carnage was an accelerated process of intense creativity," says Ellis, "the eight songs were there in one form or another within the first two and a half days."

Cave & Ellis' sonic and lyrical adventurism continues apace on Carnage, an album that emerged almost by accident out of the downtime created by the long, anxious, global emergency.

Carnage is a record for these uncertain times - one shot through with moments of distilled beauty and that resonates with an almost defiant sense of hope.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Ellis and Cave go together like chips and gravy, there's no doubting that, but until now, they've not done a full album together that isn't a soundtrack. Now here we get the unmatched songwriting capability of both parties fully focused on an album in which they're allowed free reign and it's BEAUTIFUL. Cinematic in parts, but imbued with the melodic sensibilities that are generally missing from soundtrack work. A brilliant document of two of the greatest musicians in the business, and together, a force that simply can't be bettered.

TRACK LISTING

Hand Of God
Old Time
Carnage
White Elephant
Albuquerque
Lavender Fields
Shattered Ground
Balcony Man

Invada Records release Warren Ellis’ score to ‘This Train I Ride’.

The Australian musician (Dirty Three, Bad Seeds, Grinderman) has scored a number of high-profile films (‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’, ‘Hell or High Water’, ‘The Road’) and his latest score is for ‘This Train I Ride’, a documentary film directed by Arno Bitschy.

The score is pressed on black vinyl and comes in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with the record itself housed in a double sided printed inner sleeve featuring liner notes by Warren Ellis and Brian Eno. Digital download card included.

“My idea was to record, collate and produce the music on trains, in the spirit of the women in this documentary. Brian was so encouraging with this approach and told me about a train journey he had taken in the 80’s with no fixed destination. Over the next month I sat with my computer, loops, iPhone, Reface DX synthesiser and forgotten ideas and composed the music on the Metro and Eurostar and in various hotels while working on Ghosteen. I would send the pieces to Arno from the train, or wherever I was located, and he edited them into the film.” - Warren Ellis

The film tells the story of women hopping freight trains around America. The film follows the life-journeys of these women living on the fringe in a rapidly changing country, in their quest for identity, freedom and finding their place in the world.

TRACK LISTING

This Train I Ride
Because I Was A Girl
Westbound
The Rules Concerning Men
Airport Train
I'll Hop Trains The Rest Of My Life
Freight Train
Mystery Train

BMG are set to release an exclusive version of the acclaimed soundtrack “THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD” available on vinyl for the very first time.

Re-mastered and available on limited edition whiskey coloured vinyl with a gatefold sleeve.

Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, of the internationally celebrated bands Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, The Dirty Three and Grinderman, have composed, played and produced a compelling and intense soundtrack for director Andrew Dominik's savage tale of the true West. The new score captures perfectly the charismatic and unpredictable nature of its central protagonist. Like the film, Cave and Ellis' music cuts through the mythic figure of Jesse James to reveal the complex, contradictory man beneath. Daring and passionately delivered, Cave and Ellis' beautiful soundtrack retains its captivating power even without the benefit of Dominik's images 

‘War Machine’ is a new Netflix film, directed by David Michôd and starring Brad Pitt and Tilda Swinton among many others.

Military snares set a sharp cadence beneath the score’s eerie synths and strings, instantly reminiscent of ‘Skeleton Tree’ by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and the beautiful ‘Hell Or High Water’ score.

“Together we made a score that was both light and dark, propulsive and meditative at the same time. We developed a kind of ‘spiritual electronics’ that captured both the melancholy and the terrible absurdity of the Afghan war,” Cave and Ellis said in a press release. “It was a great pleasure to work with David Michôd, who is not only an extraordinary filmmaker but a musician too. Our favorite score!”

TRACK LISTING

Ah America
Humble Man
The Bubble
The Civilian Executive
In Liebe Dein (Roedelius)
Badi Basim
Kamee (Roedelius)
The Moon Landing
Our Noise
Fabelwein (Roedelius)
Jeanie
NY Snow Globe (Rachel’s)
Thousands Of Parades, All Over America
Marjah
Staunen Im Fjord (Roedelius)
The Hand Of Helping
Be Lovely
A Page In The History Books
War Machine

Kings is a 2018 crime drama film directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Mustang). Set in 1992, it follows Millie (Halle Berry), a woman living in South Central Los Angeles who takes in at-risk youths to live in her home. When the infamous Rodney King riots grip the city, Millie and her cavalcade of adoptees are thrust into the mounting chaos sprouting all around them. In time, they are forced into unlikely alliances in order to stay alive

Scoring duties for Kings fall to Nick Cave & Warren Ellis of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds fame. In recent years, they have become a force to be reckoned with in the world of soundtracks, thanks to their impressive work on films like Hell or High Water, Wind River, and the National Geographic series Mars. Cave and Ellis, the later a repeat Ergüven collaborator, pull from their rich history in the music world to deliver an unexpected score that immediately transports the listener to a specific place in time – the hot, angry streets of Los Angeles in the summer of 1992.