Dark Night of the Soul [BOOK ONLY] [Hardcover]

Danger Mouse (Author), David Lynch (Photographer), Sparklehorse (Collaborator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2009

Musical visionary Danger Mouse, iconoclastic filmmaker David Lynch, and celebrated rock recluse Sparklehorse have converged to create Dark Night of the Soul, a project encompassing a new full-length album and limited edition book.

As half of the acclaimed duo Gnarls Barkley, Danger Mouse is no stranger to high-stakes collaborations. With the help of Sparklehorse, he has recruited a remarkable cast of contemporary artists to lend their vocals, including the Flaming Lips, Black Francis of the Pixies, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, James Mercer of the Shins, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Nina Persson of the Cardigans, cryptic Southern songwriter Vic Chesnutt, avant-folk icon Suzanne Vega, punk titan Iggy Pop, and even Lynch himself.

To create the images that accompany the music, Danger Mouse chose David Lynch. Known for revealing the gripping horror beneath suburban banality, Lynch crafts eerie beauty from the most irregular of elements. For Dark Night of the Soul, the creator of Twin Peaks, Inland Empire, Blue Velvet, and Eraserhead, delivers a gorgeous, hypnotic series of photographs.

This captivating project explores and escapes the reality of the world. The book package includes the full sequence of Lynch’s images, a foreword by Danger Mouse, selected lyrics, and an art-printed CD-R, in a run of only 5000 copies, each individually numbered.

www.DNOTS.com

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Danger Mouse is an eleven-time Grammy Award nominated; two-time Grammy Award winning artist and producer. In a short time, he has created a diverse body of work, including albums with Beck, the Black Keys, Gorillaz, and his own hugely successful band Gnarls Barkley. He was recently named one of Esquire’s 75 most influential people of the 21st Century.

Sparklehorse is Mark Linkous, a guitarist, singer, and songwriter from Richmond, Virginia. He has released four acclaimed albums and collaborated with Tom Waits, the Flaming Lips, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, and many others.

David Lynch is a filmmaker and Eagle Scout from Missoula, Montana.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 104 pages
• Publisher: powerHouse Books; Har/Cdr edition (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576875245
• ISBN-13: 978-1576875247
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 9.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #916,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is no music on the cd. There is a reason. You have to look for it., August 8, 2009

By 

J. "amidol" (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dark Night of the Soul [BOOK ONLY] (Hardcover)

There are reviews bashing Dark Night Of The Soul, and these are obviously uninformed sources.

The musical portion of Dark Night Of The Soul is not included with the book. Instead, a blank CD-R is included that is clearly labeled: "For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will."
This is due to an ongoing legal dispute between Danger Mouse and EMI, it is uncertain if the music will ever be commercially released. So the CD is included in the hope that there might be an alternative avenue to getting the music.

(This is the part where you learn how to get music from the internet. On your own.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential David Lynch, August 15, 2009

By 

W. Rosen "chickendog" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dark Night of the Soul [BOOK ONLY] (Hardcover)

If you love the surreal world that David Lynch creates in a movie, and the visual style he uses to create them, then this book is a visual treat. Here in a collection of Lynch's color photography we get to see new Lynch scenes created for the still image. It's like fragments of unseen David Lynch movies and characters that we can only imagine. Are we in Twin Peaks? Or Inland Empire? Highly recommended for David Lynch fans. And since it's limited to just 5,000 copies this will probably go out of print quickly so probably better not to delay your purchase too long. Since I'm primarily buying this as a David Lynch fan I don't miss having the music, but it was pretty easy to find on the internet if you're looking for it.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review for music,not book, June 6, 2009

By 

crown of indica "buckethead noir" (saint paul,mn,usa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Dark Night of the Soul [BOOK ONLY] (Hardcover)

I don't have the book yet,but plan on getting it after my next pay check.Anyway,I'm glad that the artists involved chose to go the Reznor,Radiohead,etc. route(in a sense) and just said "screw the label--the fans deserve the art".There are FAR too many awesome albums that get put on the shelf,never to be released,that could be classics.Happens all the time to work-a-holics like Bill Laswell.

Buuut...this project was totally unexpected!Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse doing a duo album would've been enough to sell me on it,but then they added in all the great guests and somehow Lynch jumped on board to handle art direction,some vocals AND a book of new art to accompany it?!Insane in the best way.More collaborations like this could be what saves the record industry from imploding.That's what they need to do:make albums that involve more than just digital info put on a CD that can be easily downloaded.Get back into the business of making albums that stand on their own as art instead of pumping out CDs in the most cost-effective manner.

The music:more-or-less this is another Danger Mouse album that has his distinctive, poppy beats and song structures.The addition of Sparklehorse adds guitar and a mellow aspect to the album;he is probably most-recognized in the song "Pain" with Iggy Pop--a good guitar-driven song that is almost punk but isn't because of SH's mellow tinge to the guitar sound.David Lynch's vocals are fed thru pro-tools or some other program that adds distortion;he sounds the same as he did on the Bluebob album and on the "Inland Empire" soundtrack--not so distorted that you can't make out the words, but not so clear that your focus drifts to how,erm...not-so-great of a singer he is.It works for him in the same way that the roboticized vocal distortion on Cynic's two albums does.All the other guest vocalists do a great job and there isn't a single filler track in the whole album.This bodes well for Danger Mouse fans and folks who dig the more poppy side of music;I'm not a huge fan of most of DM's work and I can't stand 90%of pop music,but this album's full of pop music that you won't be slightly ashamed to listen to.This was a bit of a risk for DM too,associating himself with dark lyrics and the dark reputation of Lynch after becoming a household name for producing "sunshine pop" or club-friendly tunes for the most part up until now.

The lyrics are great,the music has lots of repeat-listening value,and it is pop music that I'm not ashamed to say that I enjoy for one of the first times this decade!