When not playing strings on The Mountain Goats album or playing double duty on an upcoming, incredibly awesome tour (more on that later), Owen Pallett remains Final Fantasy. And on January 12, 2010 via Domino Records, Final Fantasy will unveil its third full-length… and wait until you hear what it is…
Heartland, as it is called, is billed as a “fully orchestral record, designed to exist simultaneously as an album, a 45-minute piece of orchestral music and a set of songs for looped violin and voice.”
“The songs themselves form a narrative concerning a farmer named Lewis and the fictional world of Spectrum,’ Pallett explained in an issued statement. “The songs are one-sided dialogues with Lewis, a young, ultra-violent farmer, speaking to his creator.”
He continued: “The album was compositionally modeled upon the principles of electronic music. The principles of analog synthesis informing symphonic writing, like an inversion of a Tomita record. These songs, too, were designed to be as dense with polyphony as the Final Fantasy live shows can become. While writing it, I kept an image in my head of putting so many notes on the page that the paper turned black.”
Boy, sure sounds like a lot. Fortunately, Pallett tapped quite a collection of musicians to help him out, including Arcade Fire drummer Jeremy Gara, Gentlemen Reg’s Reg Vermue, Nico Muhly, and the Czech Symphony. Rusty Santos, who produced Animal Collective’s Sung Tongs and mixed Panda Bear’s Person Pitch, handled the mixing.
Now, on to that aforementioned upcoming, incredibly awesome tour. As previously reported, Pallett will hit the road with the Mountain Goats later this fall for a month worth of dates. And because Pallett will be doing both the Final Fantasy thing as opener and performing strings for the Goats (he does on their new album after all), he’ll be working quite hard on the trek.
Get the album’s tracklist and the tour’s dates below.
Heartland Tracklist:
01. Midnight Directives
02. Keep The Dog Quiet
03. Mount Alpentine
04. Red Sun No. 5
05. Lewis Takes Action
06. The Great Elsewhere
07. Oh Heartland, Up Yours!
08. Lewis Takes Off His Shirt
09. Flare Gun
10. E Is For Estranged
11. Tryst With Mephistopheles
12. What Do You Think Will Happen Now?
Final Fantasy 2009 Tour Dates:
11/04 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Ladies Literary Club *
11/05 – Chicago, IL @ The Metro *
11/06 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon *
11/07 – Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Centre *
11/10 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox *
11/11 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom *
11/14 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore *
11/15 – Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre *
11/18 – Austin, TX @ Antone’s *
11/19 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater *
11/20 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge *
11/21 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse *
11/23 – Orlando, FL @ The Social *
11/24 – St. Augustine, FL @ Cafe 11 *
11/27 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club *
11/28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theater of Living Arts *
11/29 – Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theatre *
12/01 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall *
12/02 – Brooklyn, NY @ Bell House *
* = w/ The Mountain Goats
