Former Blur member and Britpop icon Damon Albarn has announced that he will release a new solo album titled ‘The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows’. The singer’s new project will be his second solo record and is set to be released on 12th November 2021.
Albarn has shared three cryptic posts on his Instagram page, all concerning the new release.
The upcoming album’s title track ‘The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows’ has already been released as a single, and has been received well by the artist’s fans. Albarn also treated fans to a sneak peek of his new material at last months ‘Glastonbury’s Live At Worthy Farm Livestream’. The livestream’s highlights were made available to watch on the BBC iPlayer from 24th June 2021.
The album will be released in many formats, available on CD, cassette and as a limited-edition colour vinyl. Collectable forms of the album will also be released including a deluxe option and a clear vinyl, partnered with a hardcover book complete with photographs, artwork, original lyrics and a digital file. Along with the many exclusive additions, this special edition will also include a bonus 7’’ which features music from the album’s recording sessions.
The singer’s new material reflects a peaceful somewhat euphoric state, an obvious circumstance of the album’s influence. Albarn took inspiration from the picturesque and serene landscapes of Iceland whilst writing his new music, which he began in 2019. The project embodies the phrase ‘poetry in motion’, the title is taken from a poem by the 19th-century poet John Clare, titled ‘Love and Memory’. The project was originally meant solely to be an orchestral scored piece, but the current climate affected the music’s form. The musician had some time during lockdown to revisit his work and eventually decided that the piece should be reimagined and spread out over eleven tracks.
The ‘Parklife’ singer has spoken to NME concerning the creative spark in which Iceland had ignited in his music.
“[Iceland] is a nice place to meditate on the elements and particles, I’d been dreaming on making music while looking out of that window, when my friend from the Lyon Festival offered me the very tempting proposition of ‘You can do whatever you want’. I had immediately had something that I never thought would be feasible, so I organised musicians, string players, three bass trombones, some percussion and keyboards into an interesting arrangement.”
Albarn then continued to further describe his creative process.
“I took some of these real-time, extreme elemental experiences [of Iceland] and then tried to develop more formal pop songs with that as my source. I wanted to see where that would take me. Sometimes it took me down to Uruguay and Montevideo. Other times I went to Iran, Iceland or Devon. With travel being curtailed, it was kind of nice to be able to make a record that put me strangely in those places for a moment or two.”
Albarn’s new album will see the singer follow up on his solo debut album ‘Everyday Robots‘, which was released on 25th April 2014. This was not the singer’s initial album without a band, in 2012 Albarn joined forces with Rufus Norris to create the opera ‘Dr Dee’, released as a soundtrack on 7th May 2012. The Opera was first premiered as a performance, held at the Palace Theatre in Manchester in July 2011.
Throughout the singer’s decades-long career, Albarn has proofed that he can achieve many goals musically. From fronting Blur, the Britpop band who went head-to-head during the 90’s with Oasis to forming Gorillaz, the animated band who have been releasing hits since 1998. Albarn is also famed for being part of two supergroups, the Good, the Bad & the Queen, formed with members from The Clash, The Verve and Fela Kuti and Rocket Juice & the Moon with bassist Flea and Tony Allen. The artist has even expanded his talent further, as seen in his operatic compositions and work within cinematic soundtracks. With such talent and experience it is no wonder that music fans are expecting great things from Albarn this November.
