Pitchfork Forkcast: New Music: Lee Hazlewood With Amiina: "Hilli (At The Top Of The World)" [Stream]

New Music: Lee Hazlewood With Amiina: "Hilli (At The Top Of The World)" [Stream]

One of the late, great Lee Hazlewood's final recordings (his MySpace says his very last, but you know how tapes sometimes turn up) has been set to music by Iceland's Amiina. Yes, Lee Hazlewood posthumously meets the string section for Sigur Rós. Who knows how these things happen? In any event, Hazlewood apparently recorded this spoken-word fairy tale just before his birthday in July-- his gruffer-than-gruff tough-guy voice especially weary because of his weakened condition-- and it was set to a dreamy backing by the Icelandic quartet (I am guessing they are also behind the alternate spelling of the title.) Amiina add banjo, swells of strings, horns, and voice, turning Hazlewood's bedtime story into a strange, Disneyfied concoction that is in its own way a rather affecting piece of music. Per MySpace, the track was played at his memorial service a month after his death. It will apparently see official release in some form on December 10.

Stream:> Lee Hazlewood With Amiina: "Hilli (At The Top Of The World)"

Fri: 05-09-08: 04:40 PM CDT
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