Mike Patton is no stranger to collaboration and creative connections. His latest endeavour saw him team up with French composer Jean-Claude Vannier, and the outcome of that collaboration is a full-length album. Entitled Corpse Flower, the album features several musicians from LA including Smokey Hormel (Beck, Johnny Cash), Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck, Air, Nine Inch Nails) and James Gadson (Beck, Jamie Lidell), and also from Paris including Denys Lable, Bernard Paganotti (Magma), Daniel Ciampolini, Didier Malherbe, Léonard Le Cloarec and the Bécon Palace String Ensemble.
Corpse Flower arrives on September 13th though Ipecac recordings but Patton and Vannier are already teasing the album with two tracks, ‘On Top Of The World’ and ‘Chansons D’Amour’. Commenting on the latter, Vannier had this to say:
“When I was a little boy, love songs terrified me, with their stupid Ophelias, faded flowers of melodramatics singers, quavering vocalises of another time, barbaric rituals, screams of impatient sexes, furious and bloody refrains, like in this beautiful and poisonous video. Afterwards, I lived some love stories and it was even worse, all a bazaar puppet show that moved me despite myself, took me hostage and blames me for these crimes that I did not commit”
‘Chansons D’Amour’ comes with an accompanying video, directed by Eric Livingston, who commented on it:
“The melody on Chansons D’ Amour chased me around in the back of my head for a few days after listening. I found it to be a haunting and unapologetically honest version of Vannier’s original piece. When I was given the choice between a few songs to shoot a video accompaniment to, I gravitated towards this one. Mainly, because I knew it would be a challenge for me. To film something that is subtle, yet demands attention.”
Watch the video below and listen to ‘On Top Of The World’ straight after.