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SOUNDWALK COLLECTIVE and JESSE PARIS SMITH featuring PATTI SMITH unveil video for “Killer Road”

July 21, 2016
Michael Stipe

Michael Stipe

 

SOUNDWALK COLLECTIVE and JESSE PARIS SMITH

featuring PATTI SMITH

Share ‘Killer Road‘ video

Killer Road due 2nd September via Bella Union

With their Nico tribute album Killer Road due for release 2nd September on Bella Union,Soundwalk Collective, Jesse Paris Smith and Patti Smith and have unveiled a haunting visual for the LP’s eponymous opening track.

Shot on the island of Ibiza, where Nico passed in the summer of 88, the film represents an imaginary landscape of Nico’s last day. Filmed and directed by Stephan Crasneanscki of Soundwalk Collective, and edited by Tina Frank for their subsequent concert performance, the video can be viewed below…

A shimmering ambient tone, an electronic underlay to the lulling chatter of crickets, makes way for the unmistakable voice of Patti Smith, quietly intoning, ominously, “The killer road is waiting for you / like a finger, pointing in the night.”
Behind the music and concept of Killer Road is international trio Soundwalk Collective – Stephan Crasneanscki, Simone Merli and Kamran Sadeghi, plus Patti’s daughter Jesse Paris Smith – who conceived an immersive exploration of the tragic death of Christa Päffgen. Better known as Nico, the Velvet Underground chanteuse and solo pioneer, Päffgen died while riding her bike on the island of Ibiza in the summer of 1988.
In the years before she died, Nico had not neglected her creative muse, writing poetry that would never be published, or heard, until now, in the form of the opening title track, Killer Road. The tracks that follow are eight interpretations of Nico lyrics, predominantly taken from classic albums such as Desertshore and Drama of Exile, arranged by fellow poet and kindred spirit Patti Smith.

The roots of Killer Road lie in a fortuitous meeting on an airplane bound for New York. One passenger was Patti Smith; the other was Soundwalk Collective founder Crasneanscki. Soundwalk had previously been a collaborative series of walking guides to cities that created an idiosyncratic and evocative understanding for the listener, before evolving into musical frameworks for field recordings and sight specific sound installations and performances using a variety of texts and themes.

Killer Road was initially a live audio-visual experience in New York as part of 2014’s Crossing the Line festival, with subsequent performances taking place in London and Berlin. Finally, we now we have the recorded version, a poignant, profound, imaginative exploration and tribute nearly 30 years after that fateful summer’s day.

Killer Road will be released 2nd September via Bella Union in the UK/Europe and Sacred Bones in the US. Album artwork and group photo by Michael Stipe below:
Killer Road tracklisting:
1. Killer Road
2. My Heart Is Empty
3. Evening Of Light
4. Saeta
5. Secret Side
6. Fearfully In Danger
7. I Will Be Seven
8. The Sphinx
9. My Only Child

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