Van Dyke Parks to Release Songs Cycled, First Album of New Material Since 1989

By Laura Snapes on March 1, 2013 at 11:09 a.m. Van Dyke Parks to Release Songs Cycled, First Album of New Material Since 1989 Van Dyke Parks: "Hold Back Time" (via SoundCloud) Last year, British label Bella Union reissued Van Dyke Parks' first three solo albums: Song Cycle, Discover America, and Clang of the Yankee Reaper. The relationship between the venerated composer and Simon Raymonde's label has resulted in Parks' first record of new material since 1989. Songs Cycled will be released on May 6 via Bella Union. It features several new originals, collaborations, and cover versions, along with re-recordings of older tracks, plus guest spots from Guatemalan singer Gaby Moreno and Inara George of the Bird and the Bee. Above, check out the cover art, and "Hold Back Time", a re-recording of a song from Orange Crate Art, Parks' 1995 collaborative album with Brian Wilson. Parks wrote of Songs Cycled: This album is released on Bella Union 45 years from my debut album Song Cycle (when I was but 24). In both cases, there's a maverick on the loose, with a highly personal set of tunes and instrumentals. All of them reveal an iconoclast tilting at windmills, railing at tyrants, barking at masters of war, and celebrating a shameless commitment to the very definition of 'Americana'. Head to Bella Union's website to read the rest of his fantastic, idiosyncratic short essay on the album. (Seriously, do it.) Parks turned 70 years old this January. Check out an annotated tracklist for Songs Cycled below, along with Parks' tour dates for the year. And be sure to read his contribution to our 5-10-15-20 series, along with Mike Powell's feature on "L.A. Weirdos", and a report from Parks' career-spanning show at London's Barbican last year. Songs Cycled: 01 Dreaming of Paris (original) 02 Hold Back Time (re-recording of song from Orange Crate Art) 03 Sassafras (new recording, originally by Billy Edd Wheeler) 04 Black Gold (a fantasy on the sinking of The Prestige, off the coast of the Bay of Biscay, recorded in 2002) 05 Aquarium (cover of Saint-Saëns piece, recorded in 1971 with the Esso Trinidad Steel Band) 06 Money Is King (picks up where "Wall Street" ends, written with Growling Tiger, a.k.a. Trinidadian Calypso musician Neville Marcano) 07 Wall Street (original) 08 The Parting Hand (version of a Sacred Harp hymn from the 1800s) 09 The All Golden (a re-recording from Song Cycle) 10 Wedding in Madagascar (version of traditional folk song) 11 Missin' Mississippi (original) 12 Amazing Graces (ft. The Van Dyke Parks Orchestra)