Phil Selway announces Live at Evolution Studios with Elysian Collective

Phil Selway has announced Live at Evolution Studios, Strange Dance songs played live in the studio with the string quartet Elysian Collective and the percussionist Chris Vatalaro, out on Bella Union on 8 December. A performance video of “Picking Up Pieces” from the session came with the news.

The line-up started as a one-off. Selway brought the quartet and percussion together for the album's launch event in February, as a compact way to carry its many textures. I was so made up with how it sounded and how it reframed the songs, that I wanted to capture this dynamic in a recording.¹

They recorded at the end of April at Evolution Studios in Oxford, where Selway made most of Strange Dance and his soundtrack work, just before his UK and European dates. He sings and plays piano and guitar. Bella Union call the record a companion piece to his third solo album, and say he has worked with Elysian Collective and Vatalaro since Weatherhouse in 2014.

Of the eight tracks, two are not from Strange Dance. “People of the Sea” is one of his soundtrack pieces, and “Song for Us” he wrote as a pitch for a television show.

Tracklist