Damon’s ‘DRC Music’, and further news on Tony+Flea project, Jamie’s art for ‘Ghosts Of Gone Birds’

Nothing to report on Gorillaz front at the moment, since ‘Apple Carts’ and choral piece ‘Tree of Beauty’. originally tried out / demoed for Gorillaz, appeared in the opera Dr.Dee. Damon and Jamie continue to work on other projects.

DRC Music
Damon is in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo right now, working on a project with (mostly) British producers and African musicians. The project was organised with the charity Oxfam. Their goal is to make an album in a week, to be released on Warp Records. Confirmed to be on the trip are Kwes, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Dan The Automator, Jneiro Jarel, XL Recordings boss Richard Russell, Actress, Marc Antoine and Jo Gunton. Remi Kabaka, friend of Damon’s and the voice of Russel, also seems to be on the trip. According to a tweet by Richard Russel, Hardy Blechman is ‘the visual eye’ so may be handling photography and design. Last year when news of this project first broke, it was said by Damon in interview that Jamie would be involved (e.g. Q Magazine interview, Q November 2010) however it now appears tha Jamie is not involved. The phrase ‘DRC Music’ is being used in connection with this project and it may be the official title. The project has an official Tumblr and you can see the latest photos etc from the sessions http://drc-music.tumblr.com/. (Some details on the NME website here).

Tony Allen + Flea project
After this week of recording in Congo, Damon has said he is taking 6 weeks off for a well-deserved rest. After that, it is looking more likely that his next project will be shows and possibly an album release (not confirmed at this time) featuring Tony Allen and Flea from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Flea has done various things with Africa Express since 2008 and in July 2009 Damon mentioned in a French magazine interview that he had a new album coming along with Tony Allen and Flea. During Dr.Dee promotion, Damon mentioned that he was still working on the record and that it’s now ‘mostly instrumental’. Fans who were able to speak to Tony Allen at the time of the Dr.Dee shows reported to G-U that he had said there would at least be more activity in October. The first show from this collective has been announced, what is being billed as ‘An Honest Jons Chop Up’ will take place in the Savoy theatre in Cork, as part of Cork Jazz Festival with Flea and Tony Allen on 28th October (there was previously an event called An Honest Jons’s Chop Up that took place at the Barbican in London on 5th July 2008). The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are also mentioned as appearing and there will be many other performers on the night. The Red Hot Chilli Peppers are currently on tour but as of now they have no dates booked from 22nd October to 4th December, possibly leaving time for further live dates and activity from this collective.

Ghosts Of Gone Birds
Some new Jamie art appeared in May, the first since the cover of The Fall (but we weren’t able to track pictures down before now – thanks orion70). ‘Ghosts of Gone Birds’ was an exhibition that took place from 19th-20th May at Liverpool Art & Design Academy. Lots of artists had works in the exhibition, including Olly & Suzi and Jessica Albarn. The exhibition was organised by Ceri Levy, director of Bananaz, who is also working on a new film about birds, The Bird Effect. The artists who contributed to the exhibition all picked an extinct or endangered bird as their subject. Jamie picked the Hawaiian Crow, which is extinct in the wild, only a few remain in captivity. You can see (small) pictures of Jamie’s piece here:- 1 | 2 (Jamie has apparently included a little Dodo underneath the crow). According to a post on the official Facebook of Ghosts Of Gone Birds, the show will re-surface in expanded form in London for three weeks at the start of November and there is talk of it travelling further.

And finally… expect some changes on the Gorillaz-Unofficial website over the next few weeks as we give the place a spring clean and upgrade some features.