The National Release Six-Hour Version of "Sorrow" as Nine LP Box Set

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Apr 9, 2015

How much do you love the National's High Violet highlight "Sorrow?" Enough to sit through a six-hour experimental extended performance of the song? If that's the case, the band have a new, nine-LP box set comprised entirely of that one song.

Today (April 9) 4AD confirmed the release of the Brooklyn outfit's tellingly titled A Lot of Sorrow. The collection lands on June 23.

The box set chronicles a lengthy New York performance the National undertook in the spring of 2013, as part of the MoMA PS1's Sunday Sessions. The collaboration between the act and Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartanssonin transformed "Sorrow," which originally clocked in at three-minutes and twenty-five seconds, into an expansive, exploratory piece. The National ultimately played the song continuously for six hours.

Described as a legendary "feat of endurance," the entire performance is now being pressed onto nine slabs of clear vinyl, which themselves will be encased in a translucent, screen-printed box. The set is limited to 1,500 copies, with all proceeds going towards Partners in Health, a not for profit organisation that "brings the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need."

You can sample some video from the performance over here on A Lot of Sorrow's official webpage, where you can also pre-order the box.

 

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