"Imagination never sleeps": Neil Young's Le Noise

Le Noise by Neil Young
(Click to Zoom Cover)
Release Date: September 28, 2010

More details continue to trickle out about the upcoming Neil Young release Le Noise.

Earlier, Daniel Lanois described Le Noise as "Just a man on a stool". Maybe that will be explained more in the interview with Young and Lanois on Canadian radio?

While there is much speculation on Lanois' use of "sonics" on the tracks, others are wondering whether the Dead Man Soundtrack is a preview of Le Noise? Others speculate whether the tone will be similar to the Nikos Bolas produced Times Square with its electric feedback squalls.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Randy Lewis characterized the collaboration's resulting in Le Noise:

The songs bristle with energy -- anger, passion, love, self-doubt, regret, hope -- emotions that seem all the more pure expressed without percussion, keyboards, strings or other instruments, just by Young’s voice and guitars.

So how does a producer manage to work with Neil Young?


Producer Daniel Lanois
Photo by Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

From Neil Young and Daniel Lanois: 'Le Noise' collaboration started with YouTube | Pop & Hiss | Los Angeles Times by Randy Lewis:

“He called me and he said ‘I could use your help,’ ” Lanois told me over the weekend at his house in Silver Lake. “He said, ‘I saw your Black Dub films on YouTube…. I loved those films. Would you film me and record me doing 10 acoustic songs?' I always wanted to make a Neil Young album. I said I would, of course.”

“I think we just hit on it, man,” Lanois said. “We just hit on this twin amp sound. The one amp has the bass part of the guitar and the other has the treble, and this allows me to treat each amplifier quite differently…. We were very sonically driven and innovative.”

“I told him that I had always been a little bit embarrassed that I paid no attention to holidays and weekends, I always just kept working through everything,” Lanois said. “He said, ‘Oh, I’m the same way. Don’t worry,’ he says, ‘Those are only markers of time as determined by someone else.'

“I thought it was a great line," he said. "I think it takes a strong person to realize that the imagination never sleeps. You wake up in the night, you have an idea…. We’re very similar in that way. We don’t operate by pre-determined markers of time.”

More on Neil Young's New Album 'Le Noise'.

FWIW, pre-orders for Le Noise by Neil Young are already ranked at #40 #38 #18 on Amazon.com Bestseller listing.

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