New music: The Knife – Colouring of Pigeons

The Knife's operatic take on Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Yes, really
The Knife
Quite possibly a picture of what's going on inside the Knife's collective brain Photograph: public domain

Remember when Fever Ray, your favourite solo artist of 2009, discussed working on an opera about Charles Darwin? Well, her band the Knife teamed up with Mt Sims and Planningtorock for the forthcoming production Tomorrow, in a Year. The fruits of their labour can be heard on the band's website.

The song they are streaming (you can download it in exchange for an email address) is called Colouring of Pigeons and is just over 11 minutes. We're not sure how much it tells you about Darwin's work, because, frankly, we haven't read it, but their tales of "thousand yellow cocoons" and the familar weird percussion and vocal distortion is the closest we've come to enjoying an "opera" for quite a while.

guardian.co.uk/music

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