IT'S A DARK NIGHT FOR DAVID LYNCH'S LATEST PROJECT

We’re a couple days late on this one, but it’s too good not to post, even though it’s only partially in our wheelhouse.

Hoepfully you’d heard that David Lynch has been working on an art project with Danger Mouse (the producer behind The Grey Album, who is also half of Gnarls Barkley) and Sparklehorse, aka Mark Linkous, who makes beautiful music that is a bit like the West Virginia version of The Flaming Lips. The project is called Dark Night of the Soul, and is to be a CD of music and a book of photography by Lynch.

Or: was.

EMI has blocked the release of the music (we don’t really know why, but the company was also behind the flap over The Grey Album) so now the project will be released as a book and a blank CD, for you to “do with as you will.” The saving grace, however, is that NPR is streaming the album in full. It’s not a great record, but there are weird little moments of gorgeous oddity. Lynch actually sings on two tracks, and is quite auto-tuned (not as egregiously as ‘On a Boat‘, nor as funny as ‘Auto-Tune the News‘) and there are vocal turns from a host of other musicians: Iggy Pop, Wayne Coyne, Suzanne Vega, Frank Black, and Nina Persson, for example. There are some really good sounds lurking inside the disc; it’s too bad we might never ‘hear’ it.  

Below is the teaser Lynch made for the project. Go to NPR to hear the record.

EDIT: And, as you can see, the video is gone. EMI had that pulled, too. [via Pitchfork] The clip may still be available on the project’s official site.