ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS Announce New Album The Crying Light

Antony and the Johnson’s breakthrough second album I Am a Bird Now won the UK’s prestigious Mercury Prize in 2005. The success that followed introduced many to a pioneering soul singer unafraid to explore themes that traversed darkness and light, life and death, male and female. Antony’s inimitable voice sparked the interest of artists ranging from Bjork to Hercules and Love Affair, resulting in a series of critically acclaimed collaborations.

The Crying Light is the highly anticipated full-length follow-up to I Am a Bird Now. Here, Antony shifts the thematic focus and explores his relationship with the natural world. The intimacy of the Johnsons’ sound is enveloped by avant-classical composer Nico Muhly’s symphonic arrangements. The first moments of “Her Eyes Are Underneath the Ground” unveil an animist world in which the leaves are winking and the sun “…dances crystals in my eyes.” The joyful ricochets of “Kiss My Name” and the spiraling waltz of “Epilepsy Is Dancing” are to follow. The record’s centerpiece, “Another World” traces the singer’s despair in the face of a vanishing landscape. The striking vocal on “Dust and Water” seems to sooth the mind like an unfurling and pastoral “Everglade” concludes the album, Antony stepping beyond the confines of his loneliness and into the landscape to find that his “…Limbs (have) stopped Crying for Home…” Antony falls into a reverie and seems join the legendary Butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno, whose eerie portrait graces the cover of The Crying Light “.

Antony and the Johnsons’ music bridges the gap between avant-classical music and the blues, and the band’s sold out performances have resulted in standing ovations from Carnegie Hall to the Apollo. “The Crying Light” is a soul-stirring new work with its daring compositions and captivating vocal performances. The Crying Light may even become one of those albums that becomes emblematic of its time, a reflection of the momentous changes that we are facing, within each of our private worlds as well as collectively, and how we are summoning the courage to start moving through them.

Here 'tis:



Review
"A soul stirring new work with daring compositions and captivating vocals. This isn't a heart breaking; it's a heart waking." --The Oregonian

Product Description
The follow-up to "I Am A Bird Now" shifts thematic focus and explores Antony's relationship with the natural world. The intimacy of the Johnsons' sound is enveloped by avant-classical composer Nico Muhly's symphonic arrangements.

1. Her Eyes Are Underneath The Ground
2. Epilepsy Is Dancing
3. One Dove
4. Kiss My Name
5. The Crying Light
6. Another World
7. Daylight And The Sun
8. Aeon
9. Dust And Water
10. Everglade

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001MW0IY8/?tag=imwan-20

The album was preceded back in October by this CD EP, which includes 4 non-album tracks:



Antony & The Johnsons emerged on the international stage in 2005 with their breakthrough "I Am A Bird Now." His first new material since 2006 is a prelude to the new full-length, "The Crying Light", coming in January 2009. Of the project, Antony said, "I wanted to mark this moment very clearly in my life. I love and feel so anchored by the natural world, which gave birth to me, which supplies and supports my life, this experience of color and light and aching beauty. But the world is changing so fast now. 'Another World' is a song for the present but also a song for the future. What have I lost? And what is to come?"

1. Another World
2. Crackagen
3. Shake That Devil
4. Sing For Me
5. Hope Mountain

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001EN45Z8/?tag=imwan-20