It's that time again for Super Furry Animals leader Gruff Rhys to go solo for another album on his lonesome. But this time, he's bringing a 72-piece orchestra with him for Babelsberg.
Babelsberg marks the fifth proper album from Rhys, officially following up 2014's American Interior and coming in the wake of the 2016 soundtrack Set Fire to the Stars.
Adding a whole lot of muscle to Babelsberg, Rhys is joined by composer Stephen McNeff and the seriously massive 72-piece BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
In a statement, Rhys previously explained this of the album's unusual title:
I'd made a note of the name after driving past a sign when I was on tour in 2014. Cut to a few years later and the studio where I recorded the album was being knocked down just a week after I finished to make way for a 'luxury' apartment development. I was looking for a name that evoked the Tower of Babel — people building towers to reach an idea of heaven (but maybe creating a kind of hell — I'm an atheist by the way!) In any case I had written Babelsberg down and when I listened to the songs together, it finally made sense why I'd done that.
Babelsberg is out now via Rough Trade Records, and you can stream it in full below.
Babelsberg marks the fifth proper album from Rhys, officially following up 2014's American Interior and coming in the wake of the 2016 soundtrack Set Fire to the Stars.
Adding a whole lot of muscle to Babelsberg, Rhys is joined by composer Stephen McNeff and the seriously massive 72-piece BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
In a statement, Rhys previously explained this of the album's unusual title:
I'd made a note of the name after driving past a sign when I was on tour in 2014. Cut to a few years later and the studio where I recorded the album was being knocked down just a week after I finished to make way for a 'luxury' apartment development. I was looking for a name that evoked the Tower of Babel — people building towers to reach an idea of heaven (but maybe creating a kind of hell — I'm an atheist by the way!) In any case I had written Babelsberg down and when I listened to the songs together, it finally made sense why I'd done that.
Babelsberg is out now via Rough Trade Records, and you can stream it in full below.