Author: shawn.barre

‘THANKS FOR THE DANCE’ RECEIVES JUNO AWARD NOMINATION FOR ‘ADULT ALTERNATIVE ALBUM OF THE YEAR’

WATCH: Moving On

LISTEN: Thanks For The Dance here

What the press is saying about Thanks For The Dance:

“Thanks for the Dance is full of trenchant insights and gorgeous poetry”
SPIN

“The intimate, reverberating vocals reaching one’s bones”
The Globe and Mail

“Leonard Cohen’s Profound ‘Thanks for the Dance’ Is a Posthumous Grace Note”
Rolling Stone

“Posthumous album showcases fearless artistry right to the end”
NME

[January 31, 2020]  “Moving On” the next video off Leonard Cohen’s JUNO Award nominated posthumous release Thanks For The Dance, made its debut on NOWNESS yesterday and VEVO today.

The video by Laure Prouvost and collaborator Ciarán Wood, is an image-laden tribute to the Greek Island of Hydra, a beloved refuge and retreat Leonard favored throughout his life.

“There’s a nostalgic Mediterranean romance in the music and the vocal delivery,” said Adam Cohen, the late musician’s son and producer of Thanks For The Dance, in a recent interview. “We wanted to conjure the narrator’s memories of Hydra, Greece, put him back in the house where he wrote “Bird On A Wire” with the ghostly presence of Marianne in the next room.”

Through first-person filming, Prouvost, who recently represented France at the Venice Biennale, gives the viewer a sense that they are walking in the musician’s footsteps, across an island courted by the deep blue Aegean Sea, and mostly unmarked by the passage of time.

Released last year, and nominated for a 2020 JUNO Award for ‘Adult Alternative Album of the Year’, Thanks For The Dance was an unexpected harvest of new songs from the master. Collaborating with producer Adam Cohen, friends and colleagues gathered to support and complete the work Leonard had begun, making an album that echoes the sounds of his catalogue, yet remains fresh, current and impactful. 

To celebrate the album, NOWNESS released the series: Thanks for the Dance: Artistic Responses to Leonard Cohen . Each video offers a distinct video representation of the music, a imagery interpretation of Cohen’s life and lyrics that is deeply personal to each filmmaker involved

(November 22, 2019)  Leonard Cohen’s remarkable new album Thanks For The Dance, arrives today.  Featuring several musical guests, Thanks For The Dance is an unexpected harvest of new songs from the master.   

Collaborating with producer Adam Cohen, friends and colleagues gathered to support and complete the work Leonard had begun, making an album that echoes the sounds of his catalogue, yet remains fresh, current and impactful. 

The mini-documentary, “The Story of Thanks For The Dance,” created in conjunction with the La Blogothèque team and released today, includes interviews with producer Adam Cohen, engineer Michael Chaves and album contributors Leslie Feist, Daniel Lanois, Richard Reed Perry (Arcade Fire), Zac Rae (Death Cab For Cutie), Damien Rice  and Patrick Watson. Each of those involved reflect on the journey, exploring their contributions and the meaning behind the album.

Click here to view.

To celebrate the album release, NOWNESS released the series: Thanks for the Dance: Artistic Responses to Leonard Cohen . Each video offers a distinct video representation of the music, a imagery interpretation of Cohen’s life and lyrics that is deeply personal to each filmmaker involved.

Leonard Cohen is one of the most enduring cultural icons in modern history. His music, writing and art continues to inspire and influence audiences around the world. 

To stream or download Thanks For The Dance click here.

Thanks For The Dance

1. Happens to the Heart
2. Moving On    
3. The Night of Santiago
4. Thanks for the Dance
5. It’s Torn          
6. The Goal        
7. Puppets          
8. The Hills         
9. Listen to the Hummingbird

COLLABORATION WITH NOWNESS ANNOUNCED FOR A VIBRANT VIDEO INTERPRETATION OF COHEN’S MASTERFUL LYRICS

‘Thanks For The Dance’ Available November 22, 2019

(October 25, 2019)  After the album’s initial taste of “The Goal”, “Happens To The Heart” is the first official single from the remarkable new album Thanks For The Dance, an unexpected harvest of new songs from the master, Leonard Cohen. An elegant continuation of his work, Thanks For The Dance was produced by his son Adam Cohen, and engineered and mixed by Michael Chaves.

“Happens To The Heart” features long-time collaborator Javier Mas, who flew from Barcelona to LA to capture the artist’s spirit on Leonard’s own guitar; the Berlin-based stargaze orchestra; famed producer Daniel Lanois on piano; and Zac Rae from Death Cab For Cutie on felt piano. Listen here.

Leonard Cohen is one of the most enduring cultural icons in modern history. His music, writing and art continues to inspire and influence audiences around the world.  In celebration of the release of Thanks For The Dance, Nowness has collaborated with Adam Cohen, to commission new moving-image works from a global roster of filmmakers and visual artists selected from the Nowness universe.  Thanks for the Dance: Artistic Responses to Leonard Cohen, offers a distinct video representation of the music that inspires and accompanies it, an interpretation of Cohen’s life and lyrics that is deeply personal to each filmmaker involved.

Directed and conceived by Daniel Askill, “Happens To The Heart” extends Cohen’s storytelling and explores the core thematics of his poetic lyrics.  Askill, who called the invitation to participate in the project “a humbling honor”, is known for artistic creations using film, photographs, video installation and sculpture in his work, and has directed short films, commercials, fashion films and music videos (Sia, Placebo, Phoenix). “The idea came quickly and effortlessly on my first listening to the music,” Askill commented, “I wanted to make something that spoke to Leonard’s years as a Zen Monk. A quiet symbolic visual narrative that would chart the letting go of ego and the trappings of fame… and the transition into something pure and transcendent.”

The album Thanks For The Dance will be released on November 22 and can be pre-ordered here.

“The Goal” First Track From ‘Thanks For The Dance’

In a posthumous new album, Leonard Cohen has robbed death of the last word.

‘Thanks for the Dance’ is not a commemorative collection of B sides and outtakes, but an unexpected harvest of new songs, exciting and vital, a continuation of the master’s final work. It will be released on November 22, and is available by pre-order today.

Seven months after his father passed, Adam Cohen retreated to a converted garage in his backyard down the street from Leonard’s house, to work with his father again, to stay in the company of his voice. From their previous collaboration on ‘You Want It Darker’ there remained bare musical sketches, at times little more than vocals. Leonard had asked his son to bring these works to completion.

This remarkable new album was made in many places. Javier Mas, the great Spanish laud player who accompanied Leonard on stage for the last eight years of touring, flew from Barcelona to Los Angeles to capture the artist’s spirit on Leonard’s own guitar. In Berlin, at a musical event called People Festival, Adam invited friends and comrades to lend their ears and talents. Damien Rice and Leslie Feist sang. Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire played bass. Bryce Dessner of The National played guitar, the composer Dustin O’Halloran played piano. The Berlin-based choir Cantus Domus sang, and the s t a r g a z e orchestra played. In Montrealthe famed producer Daniel Lanois dropped in, beautifully enriching sparse arrangements. The Shaar Hashomayim choir, who played such important part of the sound of the last album, contributed to a song, and Patrick Watson brought his inimitable talent as co-producer to a song. Back in Los Angeles Jennifer Warnes, one of the keepers of Leonard’s flame, sang background vocals, and Beck contributed on guitar and Jew’s harp. Michael Chaves, who elegantly recorded and mixed ‘You Want It Darker’, did the engineering and mixing.

And so was born ‘Thanks For The Dance’, a brand new Leonard Cohen album that uncannily recalls the essence of his sound.

“In composing and arranging the music for his words, we chose his most characteristic musical signatures, in this way keeping him with us,” said Adam Cohen. “What moves me most about the album is the startled response of those who have heard it. ‘Leonard lives’! they say, one after the other.”

‘Thanks for the Dance’ is an unexpected blessing, a gift of beauty and strength. Leonard Cohen’s voice has not been stilled. The dance goes on.

Today, “The Goal” premieres, the first of a series of videos from the album. Watch here.

Thanks For The Dance

1. Happens to the Heart
2. Moving On
3. The Night of Santiago
4. Thanks for the Dance
5. It’s Torn
6. The Goal
7. Puppets
8. The Hills
9. Listen to the Hummingbird

Leonard Cohen’s The Flame will be translated into numerous languages. Here is a list of the editions planned and their publication dates:

• The Flame – English (US) – Farrar, Straus and Giroux – Publication Date October 2, 2018
• The Flame – English (Canada) – McClelland & Stewart – Publication Date October 2, 2018
• The Flame – English (UK) – Canongate – Publication Date October 2, 2018
• Die Flamme: Bilingual edition – German/English – Kiepenheuer & Witsch – Publication Date October 4, 2018
• Bilingual edition – France/French – Seuil – Publication Date October 11, 2018
• Płomień – Poland/Polish – Rebis – Publication Date October 30, 2018.
• Portugal/Portuguese – Relogio d’Agua – Publication Date End of October.
• Finland/Finnish -Sammakko – Publication Date October 2018 (exact date to be confirmed in September).

AMAZON

It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away.

We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries.

A memorial will take place in Los Angeles at a later date.  The family requests privacy during their time of grief.

**

C’est avec une profonde tristesse que nous vous annonçons que le poète, auteur-compositeur et artiste légendaire, Leonard Cohen est décédé.

Le monde de la musique a perdu un de ses visionnaires les plus prolifiques et vénérés.

Une cérémonie aura lieu à Los Angeles dans les prochains jours.  La famille souhaite vivre le deuil en toute intimité.

Today we celebrate Leonard Cohen’s 14th studio album YOU WANT IT DARKER, which is now available in stores and digitally worldwide.  To accompany the release of the album is the premiere of the lyric video for the lead single “You Want It Darker.” Click here to watch.

The new collection of startling songs was produced by his son Adam Cohen, and following last week’s global launch event at the Official Residence of the Consul General of Canada in Los Angeles, the accolades for this body of work have been pouring in from around the world.

“What is truly extraordinary about Cohen is not that he is still making albums but that they are as rich, deep and potent as ever,” UK Telegraph – 5 stars

C’est surtout un album d’une rare beauté dans lequel les musiques, à la fois riches et dépouillées, se mettent vraiment au service de la voix à nulle autre pareille de Leonard Cohen qui n’a jamais paru si proche’,” La Presse – 5 stars

“Cohen’s voice remains strong, measured and assured. There is, as ever, flashes of playful humour in his wonderful use of language,” The Irish Times – 5 stars

“Leonard Cohen Makes It Darker. At eighty-two, the troubadour has another album coming. Like him, it is obsessed with mortality, God-infused, and funny,” The New Yorker

“Avec You Want It Darker, disque à la fois puissant et sombre dans lequel il aborde des thèmes qui lui sont chers comme la mortalité et la spiritualité, Leonard Cohen nous prouve qu’il est toujours aussi inspire,” Le Journal de Montreal

“An unquestioned masterpiece. Cohen courts what is most uncomfortable in the human condition and transforms that terrifying unease into something of great beauty – and in the process, some comfort too,” The Arts Desk – 5 stars

“El aroma cálido, oscuro, seductor y reflexivo de la trayectoria de Cohen resulta reconocible en su nuevo disco,”  La Razón

“This is Cohen’s gift to music lovers: a realistically grim, spiritually radiant and deeply poetic worldview, spiked with a romantic thrum and an existential wink,” Rolling Stone – 4 stars

“You Want It Darker, it is such a pleasure to listen to… this album confirms he has much more to say, much more to share, as a sage who doesn’t offer himself as such but rather as a fellow questioner stumbling through.  Yes, Leonard, if you’re asking, we do want it darker,” Sydney Morning Herald – 4.5 stars

Download | Stream

To mark the release of Leonard’s forthcoming album You Want It Darker a selection of album bundles are now available at The Leonard Cohen Shop.