/Rock-Pop/New Wave / Post Punk

BYRNE, DAVID
the knee plays

Release Date: 12/11/2007

david byrne's 1985 'the knee plays', has for many years been an orphaned work. until now, it has never been available on cd, and vinyl copies have long been scarce. byrne had been invited to compose the 12-song piece by avant-garde theatre director robert wilson as part of his 12-hour opera 'the civil wars'. commissioned for the 1984 summer olympics in los angeles, this day-long undertaking was comprised of six parts by separate composers. byrne's contribution was a series of interludes to be performed between the larger sections. funding shortfalls prevented the 'civil wars' from being realised at the time - and it has yet to be performed in its entirety. wilson's staging for 'the knee plays' evoked japanese kabuki theatre, but byrne's score came from another place entirely. he was clearly inspired by the sound of new orleans and by gospel music. he added droll narration to several of the songs, most notably 'in the future'. its text, a list of prognostications rendered in a deadpan style, now sounds more like prescience than put-on. this cd / dvd edition of 'the knee plays' includes a slide show of black and white photos by joann verburg, who had shot stills of the original production at 30-second intervals, creating a thorough visual document of the piece. in addition to the 13-track score, byrne has selected seven previously unavailable instrumental tracks he'd recorded for 'the knee plays'. 'the knee plays' feels vividly contemporary. this is a welcome rediscovery from an extraordinarily fertile time in byrne's career.