



Industrial art/music collective Laibach has long been celebrated for its reinterpretations of classic and contemporary works, continuing this tradition with the announcement of the long awaited next album, The Sound of Music. The band had performed several songs from the renowned 1965 movie during the concert in Pyongyang, North Korea when Laibach was infamously invited to perform there in 2015; The Sound of Music had been chosen due to the movie being used often in the DPRK to teach English. The concert was documented by director/artist/diplomat Morten Traavik in his Liberation Day feature, while the album was recorded and produced in Pyongyang and in the band’s home of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Sound of Music sees the return of Silence members Primož Hladnik and Boris Benko, with whom Laibach had previously collaborated on the 2006 Volk album. Among the songs on the album are “My Favorite Things,” “Edelweiss,” “Do-Re-Mi,” and “Maria” (reworked as “Maria / Korea”). In addition, the album will feature “Arirang,” Laibach’s rendition of a traditional Korean folk song, which was released in June to mark the United States/North Korea summit.







Also on the album is a workout of the traditional Korean zither-like instrument the Gayageum, which is performed by students from Pyongyang’s Kum Song Music School, and a recording of Laibach’s “welcome” speech to Korea from Mr. Ryu of the DPRK Committee for Cultural Relations. Pre-orders are now available for The Sound of Music, which will be released via Mute on November 23. A music video for the title track is currently available to view on YouTube.







Prior to the album’s release, Laibach will perform with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra on September 7 in Ljubljana, followed by the Steirischer Herbst festival in Austria with a live premiere of The Sound of Music on September 20, with one of the band DJing in a club in the middle of a mountain in Graz later the same evening. The next night, band member Ivo Salinger – a.k.a. Ivan Novak – engaging in a conversation with the festival’s director. Laibach also has appearances scheduled on October 9 and 11 in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, respectively, during which the band will perform both The Sound of Music and the previous album Also Sprach Zarathustra. A full listing of live dates can be found on the Laibach website.

Laibach

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Liberation Day

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Mute Records

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Ilker Yücel (Ilker81x)