A discussion in our offices arose about who would be putting out the Danger Mouse, Mark Linkous (of Sparklehorse) record Dark Night Of The Soul. Turns out no one is, and the packaging won’t even come with music.

A little digging led us to ask some friends at Waxploitation, who gave us the official low down. Specifically, that a spokesperson for Danger Mouse had this to say:

“Danger Mouse’s new project Dark Night Of The Soul consists of an album length piece of music by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and a host of guest vocalists, along with a collection of original David Lynch photography inspired by and based on the music.

The photographs, which provide a visual narrative for the music, are compiled in a limited edition, hand numbered 100+ page book which will now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: ‘For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.’

Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release the recorded music for Dark Night Of The Soul without fear of being sued by EMI.

Danger Mouse remains hugely proud of Dark Night Of The Soul and hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is.”

This would explain both the packaging, and the fact it’s already starting to pop up on pirate sources. This is an exciting way to make your music available to the masses, yet another sad reminder that intellectual property is simultaneously highly coveted and disregarded so easily. Regardless of what you may think of the music, a record of this magnitude should not have to resort to strategic tactics to have a monetary value.

So after we posted the album details of the Danger Mouse / Mark Linkous collaboration with all those special guests, someone commented, “Google it. The damn thing is already on the pirate networks. So you do have another price-point: $0.” Lucky for our consciences we don’t need to steal it to hear it.

NPR has the album streaming in its entirety, and you can also hear the individual tracks for those of you with short attention spans. All you have to do is go here.

Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse announced almost three years ago that they would be working together on a new collaborative project, but as of yesterday, when a poster for the project was delivered to our offices, it looks like the duo of “Dangerhorse” are engaging a wide spectrum of talent to help out on the new record.

Dark Night of the Soul is set to come out this summer, and though no further information on the album has been offered, the list of special guests — released only via the poster — makes the new project look like it could be one of the most eclectic collaborations we’ve seen in a long while.

Featuring Black Francis, Julian Casablancas, The Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, David Lynch, and James Mercer, among a bunch of others, Dark Night of the Soul is bound to offer us an immense amount of ear-candy come the summer. And lets face it, who needs supergroups like Chickenfoot when you’ve got the likes of Dangerhorse giving you all of this and more on one awesome album?

Full list of guests on Dark Night of the Soul
Black Francis (Frank Black)

Julian Casablancas (The Strokes)

Vic Chestnutt

The Flaming Lips

David Lynch

Jason Lytle (Grandaddy)
James Mercer (The Shins)

Nina Persson (The Cardigans/A Camp)

Iggy Pop
Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals/Neon Neon)
Suzanne Vega