During the recording sessions of Gil Scott-Heron’s I’m New Here back in 2008, the musician also recorded a choice selection of minimalist renditions of previously released material. Backed simply by a piano, Scott-Heron chose a beautiful collection of tracks to record during that session, which is now being released as part of the Nothing New posthumous album. The first song to be released is “Alien (Hold On To Your Dreams)”, which does an absolutely beautiful job of exemplifying all this talented artist had to offer. Rest in peace, Gil Scott-Heron.
Here’s what XL Recordings’ Richard Russell had to say:
Nothing New is recordings Gil and I made in New York of songs he chose from his catalogue, just voice and piano, pure Gil. I realised that each song he had chosen was from a different album of his. He had carefully curated the selection, so the album serves as an excellent introduction to his previous output. In our early letters, Gil had picked up on my use of the word “spartan” to describe how our record could be. The Oxford dictionary defines “spartan” as showing “indifference to comfort or luxury”. Very Gil. Nothing New is truly spartan in that it is utterly sparse and devoid of anything that is not completely necessary. All it contains is Gil’s singing and piano playing. You also hear excerpts of our conversations between takes; these give a sense of Gil’s profound and profane nature. I believe Gil would approve of calling an album of him covering his own material Nothing New; the wordplay is inspired by him. Gil once expressed that he felt our album “could do with a few more yuks” – so now you can check out some of Gil’s asides, and particularly the final interlude “On Bobby Blue Bland” for a glimpse of the man’s playful sense of humour. Once I’d compiled and edited these songs, I made three acetates, and we screenprinted artwork at XL. I gave one of these three special copies to Gil’s son Rumal Rackley, sent another to Gil’s friend and keyboard player Kim Jordan in Washington DC, and the third went to Ms Mimi, who kept Gil’s house in order. This could have been the end of the process, but Rumal felt we should share this work with people – so here it is.
Stream the lead single “Alien (Hold On To Your Dreams)” below. The album is set to be released exclusively on 12″ vinyl, limited to 3,000 copies. It will be available on Record Store Day, April 19.