Soused [Audio CD] Scott Walker + Sunn O)))

When Sunn O))) first approached Scott Walker about appearing on their 2009 album Monoliths & Dimensions, little did they know what it would actually lead to. Four years on, Scott was back with something even more enticing, collaborating on Souse, a body of work he was writing with them in mind.With a career spanning more than five decades, Scott Walker?s cult status remains as significant as ever before. Experiencing mega stardom as part of The Walker Brothers before carving out a career as a solo crooner who released a quartet of peerless self-titled LPs that painted rich vignettes of life in the late 60s, Scott went through what felt like a massive U-turn by recording a collection of masterfully challenging albums: Climate Of Hunter (1984), Tilt (1996), The Drift (2006) and Bish Bosch (2013). While there?s some truth to this artistic arc, the actual picture is a lot more complex, with his knack for introducing the disturbingly counter-intuitive and the uncanny into his songwriting dating back to the likes of 'The Plague' (1967) and ?It?s Raining Today? (1969).Centred around the core duo of Stephen O?Malley and Greg Anderson, Sunn O))) have been at the heart of underground and experimental metal since they began in Los Angeles back in 1998, broadening in range to increasingly encompass avant-garde and jazz dynamics to their dark music. Anderson runs Southern Lord (Sunn O)))?s usual label home), whilst O?Malley is involved in a remarkable web of projects as a musician, designer, and label head of Ideologic Organ. They appear alongside extended Sunn O))) member Tos Nieuwenhuizen on this recording. Recorded in London in early 2014 and produced by Scott Walker and long-time ally Peter Walsh with the assistance of musical director Mark Warman, Soused is a 5-track, 50-minute collaborative record that cements the status of both act?s wide-reaching and otherworldly renown. The artwork was designed by Sunn O)))?s Stephen O?Malley, featuring photography by Gast Bouschet.Artist & Album InformationScott Walker is one of the most mythologized, mysterious figures in modern music. After finding fame as mid-'60s pop pin-up in the Walker Brothers, Walker recorded four astonishing solo albums in the space of three years (including the classic Scott 3 and Scott 4 in 1969). Walker disappears into oblivion at the end of the 70?s surfacing roughly once a decade thereafter, delivering musical explorations of his "nightmarish imagination," each more terrifying and experimental than the last. With these, his legend only grows.The Drift, the most extreme, intense, and barren Scott Walker album yet, was issued to near critical acclaim. The album found Walker working in increasingly bizarre ways: "Clara" finds percussionist Alasdair Malloy punching on a side of pork to summon the sound of angry citizens clubbing the strung-up corpses of Benito Mussolini and his mistress in a Milan piazza. Another song, "Cue," apparently took Walker six years to complete."I make records for myself, because I'm interested in seeing where they're going to go,? Walker tells Magnet, at the time. "I think all artists do that, whether they're trying to alleviate some kind of pain or whatever."For sixteen years, Sunn O))) have been challenging the way we think about music. From 1999?s The Grimmrobe Demos to 2009?s Monoliths And Dimensions, core members Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson have forged connections between the worlds of Metal, Drone, Contemporary Composition, Jazz and Minimalism with startling results while remaining true to the eternal principles of volume, density and weight. All hail.