Nick Cave & Warren Ellis Album Addresses ‘Communal Catastrophe’
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis recorded their latest effort, Carnage, over a period of weeks during lockdown. Although the pair have composed and recorded many soundtracks together, and Ellis is a long-term member of the Bad Seeds, this is the first time they have released an entire album of songs as a duo.
“[It’s] a brutal but very beautiful record nested in a communal catastrophe,” says Cave in a press release about the album, which is out now digitally and arrives on CD and vinyl on May 28.
“Making Carnage was an accelerated process of intense creativity,” says Ellis. “The eight songs were there in one form or another within the first two and a half days.”
According to press materials, the album “emerged almost by accident out of the downtime created by the long, anxious, global emergency.” Songs such as “White Elephant” feature pulsating synths and aggressive vocals that sound absolutely ominous and intimidating.
Cave and Ellis first crossed paths in 1993 when Ellis played violin on several songs for the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds album, Let Love In, before going on to join the band as a full time member.
The two have also collaborated as Grinderman, formed in 2006, and have composed and recorded numerous, film, TV and theater soundtracks together.
