It's been a long time coming, but orchestral pop legend Van Dyke Parks has announced his first proper solo album since 1989's Tokyo Rose. The new set is titled Songs Cycled, and it arrives in the UK May 6 through Bella Union.
As fans may note, the album title is a play on Parks' 1968 debut Song Cycle, and fittingly, this next LP is a mix of old and new. While original material is being premiered on the set ("Dreaming of Paris," "Wall Street"), the album also features reinterpretations of traditional folk songs ("Wedding in Madagascar") and composer Camille Saint-Saëns' "Aquarium."
Parks also reconfigures his own back catalogue with new recordings of past tracks, such as Song Cycle's "The All Golden," and "Hold Back Time," which was originally on 1995's Orange Crate Art collaboration with Brian Wilson.
"I've drawn from a grab-bag of American roots music, from the 19th century forward. (It was, after all, 'The American Century')," Parks wrote in a statement. "Yet this song-set goes beyond, and muses about '9/11' and other self-inflicted wounds ('Wall Street'). It explores the American bombing of Baghdad ('Dreaming of Paris'), the chicanery of Big-Oil ('Black Gold'). I insist that the song-form is the most potent political tool available."
You can sample the luscious reworking of "Hold Back Time" in the stream down below.
Songs Cycled:
1. Dreaming of Paris
2. Hold Back Time
3. Sassafras
4. Black Gold
5. Aquarium
6. Money Is King
7. Wall Street
8. The Parting Hand
9. The All Golden
10. Wedding in Madagascar
11. Missin Missippi
12. Amazing Graces
As fans may note, the album title is a play on Parks' 1968 debut Song Cycle, and fittingly, this next LP is a mix of old and new. While original material is being premiered on the set ("Dreaming of Paris," "Wall Street"), the album also features reinterpretations of traditional folk songs ("Wedding in Madagascar") and composer Camille Saint-Saëns' "Aquarium."
Parks also reconfigures his own back catalogue with new recordings of past tracks, such as Song Cycle's "The All Golden," and "Hold Back Time," which was originally on 1995's Orange Crate Art collaboration with Brian Wilson.
"I've drawn from a grab-bag of American roots music, from the 19th century forward. (It was, after all, 'The American Century')," Parks wrote in a statement. "Yet this song-set goes beyond, and muses about '9/11' and other self-inflicted wounds ('Wall Street'). It explores the American bombing of Baghdad ('Dreaming of Paris'), the chicanery of Big-Oil ('Black Gold'). I insist that the song-form is the most potent political tool available."
You can sample the luscious reworking of "Hold Back Time" in the stream down below.
Songs Cycled:
1. Dreaming of Paris
2. Hold Back Time
3. Sassafras
4. Black Gold
5. Aquarium
6. Money Is King
7. Wall Street
8. The Parting Hand
9. The All Golden
10. Wedding in Madagascar
11. Missin Missippi
12. Amazing Graces
