Mick Harvey & Christopher Richard Barker released their collaboration, The Fall and Rise of Edgar Bourchier and the Horrors of War, through Mute on vinyl, CD and download on 9 November 2018.

The opening track the album was adapted from the poem ‘The Haunted Yellow Hours’, ‘Further Down The Line’ and describes how a soldier attempts to comfort his dead colleagues, describing how they stare through his “weeping eyes, further down the line…” The song is the very first one that Mick Harvey constructed music for at the outset of his collaboration with the author Christopher Richard Barker and the video can be seen here -

The album examines the work of a fictitious World War I poet, Edgar Bourchier, through his poetry as put to music in a concept album. The Fall and Rise of Edgar Bourchier and the Horrors of War coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Armistice, on 11 November 2018.

In addition to Mick Harvey and Christopher Richard Barker, the album features contributions from J.P. Shilo, a long time collaborator of Harvey’s and Jade Imagine, Simon Breed and Alain Johannes as guest vocalists.

The album was recorded primarily in Melbourne, Australia with some additional vocal recordings in the UK and LA.

Listen ‘The Lost Bastard Son of War’

Listen to ‘Softly Spoken Bill’