David Byrne - The Knee Plays (CD / DVD)

The re-mastered “The Knee Plays” was first recorded in 1985 and has never before been released on CD. The release includes twelve original tracks, eight bonus tracks, previously unseen visual materials, and a full-length DVD slideshow with music featuring 400 black and white photographs by JoAnn Verburg of the original staging.

“The Knee Plays” grew out of a relationship between Byrne and avant-garde stage director and playwright Robert Wilson. In 1983, while preparing a piece entitled the CIVIL WarS to be performed at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Wilson invited Byrne to score the “knee plays” - or entr’actes - that would come in between each of the plays that would make up the days-long theatrical epic. Inspired by Wilson’s experimental creative process and the Dirty Dozen Brass band, whom he had heard on a trip to New Orleans, Byrne created a score in twelve parts that showcased the traditional harmonies of the brass ensemble.


Tracks:
Tree (Today Is an Important Occasion)
In The Upper Room
The Sound of Business
Social Studies
(The Gift of Sound) Where the Sun Never Goes Down
Theadora is Dozing
Admiral Perry
I Bid You Goodnight
Things to Do (I've Tried)
Winter
Jungle Book
In The Future
Tree (Reprise)
I've Tried (Things to Do)
Tic Toc 2 (In The Future)
Whisper
Misterias
Faust Dance
Ghost
Super Natural