Antony and the Johnsons' Björk Duet Banned From Book Release

Posted on Aug 26th 2010 12:00PM by Linda Laban
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As Spinner previously reported, Antony and the Johnsons will release their fourth album, 'Swanlights,' with a gorgeous art book that collects some of mainman Antony Hegarty's paintings, collages, photography and writing. The album and book are both a continuation of Hegarty's existential explorations into and away from the human disenfranchisement with the natural world. However, the book and the album were not developed simultaneously.

"It's two different projects: the original art and the album," Hegarty tells Spinner. "We decided to include the CD in the book as a bonus, in a way. They are both called the same thing, 'Swanlights,' and I do see it as a body of work collectively as well as individually."

The book and album format is published by Abrams Image, but has one drawback: The book version's CD comes without the song 'Flétta,' which features guest vocals from Björk.

"The book company isn't really paying any mechanical royalties, so I can't have other people's songs on that version of the album," the singer, songwriter and pianist says, sounding somewhat frustrated by this business hiccup. "It's the only way around it. Whatever."

The duet came about during sessions for Björk's 2007 album 'Volta,' which includes a couple of collaborations with Hegarty. 'Flétta,' however, didn't feel right for the Icelandic artist's record and seemed to fit "Swanlights' well, so Hegarty decided it should at least be on the standard CD and vinyl releases. "We were in a studio in Jamaica to do some tracking for the 'Volta' album," he says. "This was another song I put together. [Björk] did some improvising over it but it ended up feeling more a part of my work, so I put it on this album."

'Swanlights' is due out Oct. 12.

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