Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Paul Weller, Michael Horovitz collaborate for Record Store Day releases

Poet Michael Horovitz has teamed up with Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Paul Weller for a pair of Record Store day releases.

The quartet will appear on Horovitz’ single, “Ballade Of The Nocturnal Commune” / “Extra Time Meltdown”, which will be released by London-based vinyl-only jazz label, Gearbox Records.

Weller, Albarn and Coxon will also appear on Horovitz’ album Bankbusted Nuclear Detergent Blues, the title track of which was commissioned by Weller, who printed the text in the artwork for his 2012 album Sonik Kicks.

The tracks were recorded at Weller’s Black Barn Studio and Albarn’s Studio 13, then mixed at Studio 13.

Of his involvement, Weller said “It was my absolute pleasure to work in these recordings with Michael. Damon and Graham. I am a big fan of all three of these artists and just to be so free with all the music and ideas was a real buzz. A lot of fun and no egos in the way. Fabulous. The end results are amongst some of the best things I’ve ever worked on.”

Horovitz agreed, saying “The three of them connected with the verse and each others’ responses to my performance of [the poems] with scintillating flights of harmony dissonance and poetic improvisations, way beyond my fondest hopes.”

Gearbox will also release for the first time Blues For The Hitchhiking Dead, a jazz/poetry recording from 1962 featuring spoken word performances by Horovitz and Cream collaborator, Pete Brown, along with the Live New Departures Jazz Poetry Septet.

Horovitz, Albarn, Weller and Coxon performed “Ballade Of The Nocturnal Commune” at the Teenage Cancer Trust benefit concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Saturday, March 23.

Pic credit: Yui Mok/PA Wire/Press Association Images