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Jan 06, 2010 Mt. Sims By Kyle Lemmon

Back in 2009, The Knife put to tape a soundtrack for an opera based on the life and works of Charles Darwin, specifically the seminal book, On the Origin of Species. The project was entitled Tomorrow, In a Year and The Knife siblings collaborated with the Berlin electro-rock trio Mt. Sims and avant-garde artist Planningtorock. The stage production premiered in September of last year, and based on a seven-minute trailer, it looked and sounded like an opera that only The Knife could create. Now comes word of a mastered version of the soundtrack coming out in digital (February 2nd) and physical (March 9th) formats, courtesy of Mute. (International buyers can snag the physical on March 1st.)

The 11-minute opus “Colouring of Pigeons” is currently streaming at The Knife’s site or in our Media section. It will definitely make your hump day a whole lot stranger. (You can also download it for the cheap price of an e-mail address.)

Talking about the new piece in a press release, The Knife’s Olof Dreijer had this to add about the process of staging such a gargantuan piece: “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.”

Tomorrow, In a Year concerts are still ongoing, with 2010 dates set for Greece, Sweden, and Budapest. Click here for more information.

Tomorrow, In a Year:

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
07 Annie’s Box (alternate vocal) (bonus track)

(www.theknife.net)