Photo by Marthe A. Vannebo
Grammy-winning artist Daniel Lanois is bringing his catalog and future work to BMG, making the company his home label.
Daniel Lanois has enjoyed a 50-year career as a highly acclaimed producer, musician, songwriter, and vocalist. His range of work includes artists like Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, U2, Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and many others.
Lanois’ work spans genre and form, including one of the key vocal tracks on Lakeshore Records’ official soundtrack for 2018’s award-winning video game, Red Dead Redemption 2. NPR has praised his solo work comprised of “brilliant albums of heartfelt songs,” while Rolling Stone has said that Lanois’ “unmistakable fingerprints are all over an entire wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”
“Daniel Lanois is a sonic alchemist whose own work showcases the very best of his art, loved and admired by the artist community and fans around the world,” says Fred Casimir, EVP Global Repertoire at BMG. “We are delighted he has chosen BMG as his label home.”
BMG’s award-winning catalog team will manage all but one of Lanois’ 13 solo albums. His first new album under the arrangement, Player, Piano, is set for release on September 23 under BMG’s Modern Recordings. He joins a roster including Craig Armstrong, Simon Goff & Katie Melua, Meredi, Pat Metheny, Vince Mendoza, Pantha du Prince, and many more.
“As in everything he does, Daniel makes the familiar new and the new familiar,” says Christian Kellersmann, SVP of Modern Recordings. “(Player, Piano) is an extraordinary work which is perfectly aligned with Modern Recordings’ mission to push the boundaries of music.”
The album is described as “an exotic and melodic instrumental work,” with Lanois calling it a deliberate counter to the sound of most modern piano recordings.
“There’s a race to be louder and brighter in the piano world that makes the instrument feel harsh and brittle to my ear,” Lanois says. “I decided that if I was going to make a piano record, I wanted it to sound like recordings from the 40s and 50s, back when the piano was soft and beautiful.”
Lanois will keynote at Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg to coincide with the release of Player, Piano.