Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases

Amanda Palmer and Edward Ka-Spel announce album

By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 21 February 2017

Amanda Palmer has announced that she is releasing a new album with the Legendary Pink Dots frontman Edward Ka-Spel. ‘I Can Spin A Rainbow’ will be released on 5 May.

The album marks the realisation of a lifelong ambition of Palmer’s to work with Ka-Spel. However, when she first flew to London to begin recording in 2015, she learned on day one of recording that a close friend had been given a terminal cancer diagnosis and returned home. A year later, they finally set up shop in Imogen Heap’s Hideaway studio and made the record.

“We merged our songwriting heads and poetic worlds to make a new universe”, says Palmer. “We would sit in Imogen’s house drinking cups of tea, bemoaning the state of the upcoming election, binge drinking in the UK, the refugee crisis, our internet addictions, frightening news we had read, our relationships and then we’d distil all of the ingredients of our fears and conversations into song form”.

“The rainbow metaphor – which is also a nod to the ‘spinning beach ball of death’ on a Mac – was a wide-open image that kept popping up as a recurring theme on the record”, she continues. “It’s both dark and light at the same time. To me, the songs are simultaneously frightening and comforting, like a thunderstorm heard from a living room”.

Ka-Spel adds: “Making this record with Amanda felt a little like discovering a twin you didn’t know you had, until a mysterious email lands in your inbox at a particularly auspicious moment. Some things are just meant to be…”

The pair will perform songs from the album live at Heaven in London on 13 May. Tickets go on sale on Friday.