Nick Cave & Warren Ellis: Carnage (LP)

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis present their new joint album: Carnage - which means bloodbath or slaughter. It was made over several weeks during the lockdown and Nick Cave describes it as "a brutal but beautiful record embedded in a collaborative disaster." Though the two have composed and recorded many soundtracks together, and Ellis is also a longtime member of The Bad Seeds, Carnage is actually the first long player they've officially recorded as a duo The unique creative chemistry between Cave and Ellis is based on a long history together as colleagues and solo artists. With Carnage, they present the next chapter in their musical adventure: An album that should have been created by accident, so to speak, during the long, worldwide shutdown of the pandemic months. The various moods and also the restlessness of these recordings reflect existential uncertainty, but at the same time moments of calm flicker out again and again, moments of meditative introspection. The bottom line is that this is an album made in and for these volatile times, interspersed with moments of concentrated beauty. Recordings that express their unwavering confidence almost defiantly.