January 06, 2009 john frusciante, the empyrean

it is hard to believe, but four years have passed since john frusciante's last* solo record curtains was released. he is soon to release his latest album, entitled the empyrean, on january 20th

Very cool that there is a Tim Buckley cover. Really looking forward to this album.

Returning contributing musicians include Flea and Josh Klinghoffer, while ex-smiths guitarist Johnny Marr(!?) plays on two tracks

Enjoy this description, it is classical frusciante:


The Empyrean is my new record and will be released worldwide via Record Collection on January 20th 2009. It was recorded on and off between December 2006 and March 2008. It is a concept record that tells a single story both musically and lyrically. The story takes place within one person, and there are two characters. It contains a version of Tim Buckley’s, ‘Song To The Siren’ and the rest of the songs are written by me. My friend Josh plays on it, as does Flea. It also features Sonus Quartet, Johnny Marr and The New Dimension Singers. I’m really happy with it and I’ve listened to it a lot for the psychedelic experience it provides. It should be played as loud as possible and it is suited to dark living rooms late at night.

- John Frusciante, November 3rd, 2008

The Empyrean is a story that has no action in the physical world. It all takes place in one persons mind throughout his life. The only other character is someone who does not live in the physical world but is inside it, in the sense that he exists in peoples minds. The mind is the only place that anything can be truly said to exist. The outside world is only known to us as it appears within us by the testament of our senses. The imagination is the most real world that we know because we each know it first hand. Seeing our ideas take form is like being able to see the sun come into being. We have no equivelent to the purity of that in our account of the outside world. The outer world appears to each of us as one thing and it is always also a multitude of others. Inside to outside and outside to inside are neverending. Trying and giving up are a form of breathing.

- John

Track listing:
1. Before The Beginning
2. Song To The Siren
3. Unreachable
4. God
5. Dark/Light
6. Heaven
7. Enough Of Me
8. Central
9. One More Of Me
10. After The Ending
11. Today (Japanese release only)
12. Ah Yom (Japanese release only)

Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empyrean
http://johnfrusciante.com/?p=20
http://johnfrusciante.com/?p=23
http://www.redhotchilipeppers.com/news/news.php?uid=762

*discounting the ataxia ii side project

January 06, 2009 2009 is set to be musically awesome!!

just wikipedia-ing and found that amongst artists releasing albums this year are four of my favorites:

john frusciante - the empyrean - january 20th
dave matthews - april 14th
depeche mode - april 21st
radiohead

January 03, 2009 two movie ratings

children of men (2006) - 9/10 superb
7 pounds - 4/10

movie review
January 02, 2009 three more tracks from my album

three more mixed songs from my album. "brilliant when rare" is the song i like the most so far.

track # title length
7 leaving 4:30
8 brilliant when rare 4:02
11 happy child 3:28

My album page

original song
December 31, 2008 My top ten albums of 2008

My favorite albums of 2008

rank artist album
1 kings of leon only by the night
2 city and colour bring me your love
3 conor oberst conor oberst
4 constantines kensington heights
5 nick cave dig! lazarus! dig!
6 tv on the radio dear science
7 plants and animals parc avenue
8 fleet foxes fleet foxes
9 the stills oceans will rise
10 mgmt oracular spectacular

My 2007 picks

top albums of 2008