Late Night Tales and Bonobo were pretty much made for each other, it just took them a while to both realise it.
Stepping forward into the compilers spotlight for the 33rd edition is Simon
Green – aka Bonobo – a musician, producer and DJ perfectly suited to
soundtrack an evening spent reclining to some parallel beats. Six albums to the
good (most recently ‘The North Borders’ released earlier in 2013), Green has
been on a winning streak since 2010’s breakthrough ‘Black Sands’, which
has now sold in excess of 160,000 copies. His music has aided the sales of
Citroen cars and Olay creams, as well as soothing the puzzlement of Lost.
Wrapped in delicately programmed drums, Green’s music is at once both sombre
and reassuring. If what comes out the other end is the music of Bonobo, then
this is the fuel that keeps the engine running: soul, jazz, classical, pop,
funk, leftfield, rock. Pianos and brass are abundantly present. Our ivories are
warmed and tickled by the classic, Bill Evans, and new school, with Matthew
Bourne’s mournfully beautiful ‘Juliet’ and Dustin O’Halloran’s ‘An
Ending A Beginning’. The brass section comes courtesy of Menehan Street
Band’s jazzy ‘The Traitor’, ‘Flipside’ by the Hypnotic Brass Band.
Exclusives include YouTube sensation ‘One Thing’ by Peter & Kerry . Not
only that, but there’s Bonobo’s special LNT cover version, a brilliant
reading of Donovan’s ‘Get Thy Bearings’, As the light dims, the unsettling
sounds of Lapalux or maybe even Shlomo pierce the misty evening air, before
giving way to the ethereal splendour of Eddi Front’s ‘Gigantic’ or even
Nina’s paean to an imagined rural idyll ‘Baltimore’. Amble down to the
riverside. It could be the Great Ouse, as willows weep into the water; it could
even be in Brooklyn overlooking the Lower East Side, as the sun slides down the
sides of the skyscrapers. Take a notepad for
inspiration. Maybe even a hipflask for a slug of something warm. Sit down and
reflect and let those beautiful pianos skim the water’s surface. Sometimes,
you think, life is good. You can’t play a symphony alone, it takes an
orchestra to play it: Simon Green is your conductor.
The “Late Night Tales” series was launched in 2001. The idea: pick an internationally known artist with a great musical knowledge, offer them the chance to choose and mix all their favourite “home listening” and musically inspiring tracks, together with an exclusive cover recording of an all time favourite song. 32 albums and over 1 million sales later we bring you our 33rd artist curated late night selection.
- Our first CD to include unmixed tracks as bonus download code (wav/mp3 format)
- The release features a brand new Bonobo recording exclusive to the release, a stunning cover of Donovan’s “Get Thy Bearings”
- Includes MP3/Wav download code to mixed and unmixed tracks
- In depth personal track comments by Simon Green aka Bonobo
- The album tracks have been reedits and mixed especially by Bonobo to make this a truly unique listening experience
- Exclusive spoken word piece by A list actor Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek/The Hobbit/Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)