PROMINENT musicians including Amanda Palmer, Anna Calvi and more have banded together to produce a new David Bowie tribute EP.
Featuring a slew of his finest tracks from throughout the duration of his illustrious career, ‘Strung Out In Heaven: A Bowie String Quartet Tribute’ is comprised of 6 remarkable renditions which are assisted by American composer Jherek Bischoff’s wondrous string arrangements.
Featuring tracks such as ‘Life On Mars?’ ‘Heroes’ and more, the focal point of the EP is undoubtedly Calvi and Palmer’s spellbinding take on ‘Blackstar’; somehow made all the more poignant by its beautiful strings.
Speaking about the tribute’s conception, Palmers explains her motives at length:
“We found out he’d died – by text from Neil’s daughter – at 3 a.m. in Santa Fe. We were visiting family, to introduce them to the newborn lying in bed beside us,” says Palmer in a statemtn. “A tiny fleshy reminder that Bowie, like our other friends, mentors and heroes who’ve been consumed by cancer in the past few months, was just…passing through. The baby is Ash. Dust to dust. Funk to Funky.
“Music is the binding agent of our mundane lives. It cements the moments in which we wash the dishes, type the resumes, go to the funerals, have the babies. The stronger the agent, the tougher the memory, and Bowie was NASA-grade epoxy to a sprawling span of freaked-out kids over three generations. He bonded us to our weird selves. We can be us. He said. Just for one day.
“The next day I was on the phone to Jherek, discussing another project (and I was feeling a bit trapped in the non-productive new-mother cave, so we joked that we should do a flash Bowie tribute. And suddenly, we weren’t joking. I had funding from my 7,000 fans on Patreon to “make stuff.” What better “stuff”? We started that night, giving ourselves a deadline of two weeks to release it as a surprise. I emailed a bunch of visual artist friends that night.”
The release is now available for pre-order via bandcamp, with £1 of every donation going to Bowie’s publishers and the rest making its way to cancer charities.
Check out ‘Blackstar’ now:
