Description
PRE-ORDER ITEM — TO BE RELEASED SEPTEMBER 5, 2025. Any regular in-stock items ordered at the same time (in the same shopping cart) will be held aside and sent with your pre-ordered goods as one shipment. Orders with multiple pre-orders will be sent as one order, when all of the items in the order are available. If you want the order to ship immediately, or want your pre-ordered items to be sent out as soon as they arrive here, rather than in a group, you must order them separately. PAYMENT WILL BE TAKEN WHEN YOU COMPLETE CHECKOUT.
The Legendary Pink Dots have toured the world countless times and released dozens of albums after forming in London in 1980, while Matt Howarth has made his name with his comic books and graphic novels over a career stretching back to the mid-1970’s. Many of his works have a science fiction theme, but electronic and alternative music has always inspired him, leading him to projects with The Residents, Hawkwind, Moby, Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze, Nash the Slash, Foetus, Yello, Wire, Steve Roach, Richard Pinhas, Ron Geesin, David Borden, and more. Soleilmoon is pleased to be releasing this captivating cross-disciplinary cooperative project by two of our favorite artists.
Matt Howarth writes: I have spent much of my career infusing my comics with eclectic music. I did music reviews as comic strips (“Sonic Curiosity”). I got several real world musicians to guest star in many of my works (like Hawkwind, the Residents, Wire, Conrad Schnitzler, and others in my “Savage Henry” series). It made perfect sense that I would mutate such connections into actual collaborations with musicians (like Klaus Schulze, Hugh Hopper, Arthur Brown, and more). My musical tastes are far from commercial drivel, so it makes perfect sense that I would want to work with musicians whom I deeply respected (like the Legendary Pink Dots). And each of these collaborations comes with a unique “how we got there” tale.
Many years ago, my friend Carl Howard, who ran Audiofile Tapes, turned me onto The Pink Dots. And later, it was Carl who got me in contact with Edward Ka-Spel. Edward and I discussed the possibility of working together, but life has a way of getting in the way, and it would be several years before that ambition bore fruit. In fact, the COVID-19 lockdown was integral in that happening. Trapped at home, Edward found the opportunity to put his creative juices to work on our project. We discussed some vague story ideas, then I did the comic. That gave Edward something to directly inspire the music. His interpretation was spot-on, flavoring a simple adventure story with deeply emotional content.
Edward Ka-Spel shared these thoughts: Composing a soundtrack for a comic is a unique challenge. It took me a while to figure out an approach that worked for me even though I studied Matt’s art carefully. Ultimately the key was to identify myself with the main character and invent a personality in my head. A new direction emerged and that single dimension on the page before me became three-dimensional in my head. That’s where the borders dissolve, and that’s when the unity of sound and vision happens.
In addition to the Legendary Pink Dots’ music, the enhanced CD includes Matt’s comic in PDF format, viewable on your television with a DVD player, or on any computer with a built-in or connected external CD or DVD drive. The comic can also be downloaded from Soleilmoon.com immediately following purchase of the CD.
Online resources: legendarypinkdots.org, legendarypinkdots1.bandcamp.com, matthowarth.com
