Van Morrison

New Arrangements and Duets Van Morrison

"This album is just a small part of the huge amount of unreleased material that we hope to release in the near future instead of letting it gather dust in some archive. The big band tracks were recorded in 2014, the duets more recently. Chris White and Paul Moran individually chose the songs for which they wanted to make new band arrangements. The Willie Nelson and Kurt Elling pieces were recorded in 2018 and 2019, the Curtis Stigers and Joss Stone pieces in 2018." (Van Morrison)

Equal parts blue-eyed soul shouter and wild-eyed poet-wizard, Van Morrison is one of popular music's true innovators, a restless seeker whose evocative vocals and alchemical fusion of R&B, jazz, blues and Celtic folk has produced perhaps the most spiritual work in the rock & roll canon. Subject only to the whims of his own muse, his recordings cover an extraordinary stylistic terrain, yet maintain a consistency and purity virtually unmatched among his contemporaries. They are linked by the mythic power of his singular musical vision and fiery vocals: spiraling repetitions of wails and whispers that skirt the boundaries of language to articulate emotional truths that go far beyond the scope of literal meaning.