"Kramer had the idea to cover a Joy Division tune. It was a left turn from the improvisations we had been tracking, though wholly in keeping with both our sensibilities of light and dark unifying in transcendent songwriting, both of us devotees of 'the song' as well as 'the freedom.'"
"I clearly remember what I felt when I first heard track four of Unknown Pleasures. It was a masterpiece. A stroke of pure artistic genius. 'Insight' is a criminally under-appreciated tone poem; a benediction of loss, longing, and regret that still touches every cell in my body. It also features Hook's finest bass guitar invention, singing to me like the sirens of Titan."
"Thurston gave the music the gentle magic and unhurried cries Ian Curtis' words had always been screaming for, and singing it with him put me right back into that place, that feeling, that time when I first heard the sad pageantry of this tragic man's exquisite warning: 'Time won't stop for you, or for anyone or anything.'"
Thurston Moore and Bonner Kramer are releasing their collaborative album They Came Like Swallows - Seven Requiems for the Children of Gaza on May 1. The album includes original compositions alongside a cover of Joy Division's "Insight" from Unknown Pleasures. Their version foregrounds the bassline more prominently than the original, enhanced by ticking percussion and atmospheric sound design. Moore and Kramer's whispered vocals complement the arrangement. Kramer initiated the cover idea as a departure from their improvisational work, yet aligned with both artists' approach to blending light and dark elements in transcendent songwriting. Kramer describes "Insight" as an underappreciated masterpiece and tone poem about loss and longing, praising Peter Hook's bass work and Ian Curtis's lyrics.
Read at BrooklynVegan
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