THE KNIFE slipper nytt album 1. mars!

THE KNIFE

“TOMORROW, IN A YEAR”

AN OPERA ABOUT CHARLES DARWIN BY THE KNIFE

IN COLLABORATION WITH MT.SIMS AND PLANNINGTOROCK

 

ALBUM RELEASED 1^st MARCH

www.theknife.net

‘Colouring Of Pigeons’ streamed on theknife.net and rabidrecords.com

The Knife, in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock, are to release the studio version of the opera ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’, on Brille Records on the 1^st March 2010.

Commissioned by Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma to write the music for their opera based on Charles Darwin and his book ‘On the Origin of the Species’, The Knife decided to make this a collaborative process, working with artists Mt. Sims and Planningtorock for the first time, to capture the huge width of the Darwin and evolution theme. They extensively researched Darwin related literature and articles, with Olof attending a field recording workshop in the Amazon to find inspiration and to record sounds.

‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ is a unique musical project. Richard Dawkins’s gene trees have formed the basis of some of the musical composition, artificial sounds have been mixed with field recordings, with the music inspired by everything from the different stages of a bird learning its melody, to a song based on Darwin’s loving letters about his daughter Anne. These are compositions that challenge the conventional conception of opera music.

Pushing the experimental process further still, composer, choreographer, costume designer and set designer worked separately, only coming together 3 and a half months before the first performance of ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ in Copenhagen on the 2^nd September 2009. Described as “shifting the position of operartic art in a single leap”, further performances of ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’ are confirmed to take place in Athens (8-9 Jan), Stockholm (29 Jan-1 Feb), and Munster (5 June), with further dates to be announced.

Olof Dreijer says: “At first it was very difficult as we really didn’t know anything about opera.  We’d never been to one. I didn’t even know what the word libretto meant. But after some studying, and just getting used to opera’s essence of pretentious and dramatic gestures, I found that there is a lot to learn and play with. In fact, our ignorance gave us a positive respectless approach to making opera. It took me about a year to become emotionally moved by an opera singer and now I really do. I really like the basic theatrical values of opera and the easy way it brings forward a narrative. We’ve approached this before in The Knife but never in such a clear way.”

The Knife In Collaboration With Mt.Sims And Planningtorock - ‘Tomorrow, In A Year’

Released on the 1^st March 2010 on Rabid Records / Cooperative Music

 

Tracklist:

CD 1

01. Intro

02. Epochs

03. Geology

04. Upheaved

05. Minerals

06. Ebb Tide Explorer

07. Variation of Birds

08. Letter to Henslow

09. Schoal Swarm Orchestra

 

CD 2

01. Annie’s Box

02. Tumult

03. Colouring of Pigeons

04. Seeds

05. Tomorrow in a Year

06. The Height of Summer

 

Bonus track

07. Annie's Box (alt. vocal)

Websites:

www.the knife.net

www.rabidrecords.com/tomorrowinayear/

www.cooperativemusic.com