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Photo – Neil Kirk

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Photo – Neil Kirk

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Bryan Ferry releases his first original music in over a decade with ‘Star’, a new song set to feature on the upcoming album ‘Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023’. The 81-track collection is a celebration of Bryan Ferry’s peerless career as a solo artist, spanning a period of over 50 years of music and 16 solo albums, bringing the story right up to the present with a snapshot of his latest work.

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‘Star’ began as a sketch by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Bryan Ferry reworked the song in his London studio, transforming the music into an anxious, darkly gleaming slab of pounding post-techno. The song sees Ferry continuing to explore uncharted creative territory, collaborating with performance artist Amelia Barratt to create a duet that blurs the lines between art, music and poetry. Amelia contributed the lyrics and performs vocals on the song whilst Bryan Ferry is singing.

‘Star’ is accompanied by a new music video directed by Bryan Ferry, starring Amelia Barratt. The visuals experiment with light and projection using cityscapes and shadows, recalling the disquieting beauty of city nights.

Speaking about ‘Star’ Bryan Ferry said: “‘Star’ is a collaboration with the painter and writer Amelia Barratt. A couple of years ago I helped her record an audiobook here in my studio. I was very impressed by her writing, and this is the first song we did together. I’m very excited about this new work – there’s a lot more to come.”

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‘Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023’ is a celebration of the performer who has carved out a place as a master modern interpreter of song via a dizzyingly inventive series of cover versions that range from Bob Dylan to Amy Winehouse, Rodgers and Hart to the Velvet Underground via Tim Buckley, Shakespeare, sea shanties and Sam and Dave. Then there’s the songwriter who, in singles like 1985’s ‘Slave To Love’, has crafted music that stands amongst the defining recordings of their era yet still sounds unique and timeless. There’s the futurist conjuring vortices of electronica; or the passionate revivalist, presenting songs and styles from the 1920s and 1930s as if they were the hot sound of tomorrow calling. There’s the figure out on the pulsing nightclub dancefloor, tripping the light fantastic; and the guy who wants only to be alone, slipping away into brooding, bittersweet backstreets where everything turns neon and noir.

Marking the start of this career-spanning celebration, Bryan Ferry recently released ‘She Belongs To Me‘. A powerful re-imagining of the 1965 Bob Dylan classic that brings the story full circle.

Five decades ago, the Roxy Music phenomenon exploded in a technicolour flash of pop, high art, outré fashion and glamour, asserting band leader Bryan Ferry as one of the most vital and exciting songwriters British music has ever seen. During this ultra-prolific period, in 1973, Ferry launched his solo career in parallel to Roxy Music. His first release, an audacious remodelling of Bob Dylan’s apocalyptic 1962 anthem ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’, signalled the dawn of Ferry’s status as one of the great modern interpreters of song, in tandem with his peerless songwriting and composition. Fast forward to 2024, and Bryan Ferry returns to the Dylan songbook anew. ‘She Belongs To Me’ is rendered in a beautifully rough-edged style balancing shades of the Velvet Underground against the most prominent Ferry whistling solo since Roxy Music’s 1981 rendition of John Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’.

‘Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023’ brings together, for the first time, Bryan Ferry’s classic recorded output with Island Records, Polydor, Virgin, E.G. Records and BMG, and features two brand new recordings. The album will be released in multiple formats, including a 5CD deluxe box set featuring 81 songs and a 100-page hardback book containing extensive new liner notes, rare and unseen photographs, and imagery. A 2LP gatefold edition presents ‘The Best Of Bryan Ferry’, containing 20 songs pressed to black vinyl with variants including a green/blue vinyl pressing and a clear vinyl pressing. A 1CD version will also feature the same 20 songs and a booklet containing liner notes and photographs.

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‘Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023’ will be available on Friday, October 25, via BMG

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