Daniel Lanois

"Papineau" (ft. Laura Cole)

BY Alex HudsonPublished Feb 11, 2014

Production legend and veteran songwriter Daniel Lanois has a new solo album coming out in the fall of 2014, but ahead of time, he's releasing a one-off single called "Papineau" that won't be on the record.

The song is a jazzy, stripped-down duet featuring piano chords, acoustic guitar licks and barely-there percussion. Lanois shares lead vocals with guest Laura Cole.

In a statement, Lanois had this to say about the track:

"Papineau" is a song I've had in my head for 15 years. A song designed to be sung as a duet... a father/daughter conversation. I invited Laura Cole to sing the role of the daughter. Laura helped me with a few lyric lines and we recorded the song in three hours. Alex Krispin turned on the camera and captured the studio vocal performance... that's it, a nice spontaneous afternoon and voila! We have "Papineau."

This release is partly an experiment to see about releasing songs as quickly as I finish them, to release something right away at a moment of excitement. If this "Papineau" release works out, I'd love to keep releasing works as they come out of the oven.


The song will be available on iTunes on February 14 through Red Floor Records. Steam it below and also watch the studio clip that Lanois mentioned in his statement.

See Lanois's upcoming tour schedule with Emmylou Harris right here.



Daniel Lanois | Papineau Teaser from Daniel Lanois on Vimeo.

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