Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (aka Will Oldham) and The National’s Bryce Dessner have teamed with contemporary classical ensemble Eighth Blackbird for a new collaborative album. Dubbed When We Are Inhuman, the record is due out August 30th via Dessner and Justin Vernon’s 37d03d record label.
The eight-track effort finds Eight Blackbird creating new arrangements of songs from Oldham’s catalog alongside new entries in Dessner’s Murder Ballades series. There’s also the Appalachian standard “Down in the Will Garden” and a track inspired by Sufjan Stevens’ “John Wayne Gacy Jr.” called “Underneath the Floorboards”. The opening song is a version of the late Julius Eastman’s “Stay on It”, a track which “harnessed the vocabulary of minimalism for joyfully insurgent ends.”
In addition to new versions of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy tracks like “One with the Birds”, “New Partner”, and “When Thy Song”, When We Are Inhuman’s lead single is a reworking of Oldham and Matt Sweeney’s “Beast for Thee” from 2005’s Superwolf. Listen to the resplendent song below.
Earlier this year, Bryce Dessner released his solo classical album El Chan.
When We Are Inhuman Artwork:
01. Stay on It
02. New Partner
03. Beast for Thee
04. Down in the Willow Garden
05. One with the Birds
06. Banks of Red Roses
07. Underneath the Floorboard
08. When Thy Song
