Lonely Avenue,  a collaboration between two eminent artists—American singer-songwriter Ben Folds and English novelist Nick Hornby—will be released September 28 on Nonesuch Records. The album features music and vocals by Folds and lyrics by Hornby, with string arrangements by one of the most influential pop string arrangers of all time, Paul Buckmaster (David Bowie, Elton John, Leonard Cohen). The record, which Folds made specifically to be listened to on vinyl, was recorded on 2-inch tape and will be available on audiophile-grade vinyl, cut with the Direct Metal Master process at Abbey Road Studios and pressed at Pallas Manufacturing in Diepholz, Germany. Lonely Avenue will also be available on CD, digitally, and in a special deluxe edition that includes four short stories by Hornby.

The idea to create an album of Folds’ unique pop songwriting sensibilities with Hornby’s insightful prose was conceived during a dinner conversation between the two friends one night in 2009. After that, Hornby began regularly emailing lyrics to Folds, who then turned them into Lonely Avenue’s 12 musical short stories. The songs touch on subject matter ranging from a mother with a child in the hospital over New Years Eve to the work of Doc Pomus, lyricist of countless '50s and '60s pop hits. On composing the music Folds recently told Paste: “I kind of ran the gamut between being as simple as I’ve ever been, and sometimes having to go [Russian composer Dmitri] Shostakovich on some of them.” Hornby says of the pairing: “At this stage in my career, I want to collaborate with all the talented people I can find, and I’ve always been a big fan of Ben Folds’ music. It’s been a real privilege to watch and listen to Ben at work, and I’ve learned a lot about how proper songwriters like Ben think.”

Ben Folds first found mainstream success as the leader of the critically acclaimed platinum selling Ben Folds Five. He has gone on to have a very successful solo career, recording three studio albums in addition to a pair of records documenting his renowned live performances and a remix record. Folds also recently released Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella!, a collection of his songs performed by college groups. In 2009 Folds was featured as a judge on NBC’s a capella competition The Sing Off (a role he will reprise later this year on the show’s second season), and earlier this year Folds’ viral Chatroulette video became a YouTube sensation, garnering almost five million views when he joined a video chat with an unsuspecting online companion live during a show in Charlotte, NC. Folds previously collaborated with Hornby on a song for the Folds-produced William Shatner album, Has Been, which the Huffington Post called “one of the few records in recent memory that dared to tell the unvarnished truth about the human condition.”  In addition he has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center, the Boston Pops with Keith Lockhart, and four sold out nights with the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House.

Nick Hornby often writes about music, musicians, and music lovers in his fiction and nonfiction work. His six novels, some of which have been turned into successful films, are High Fidelity, About a Boy, How to Be Good, A Long Way Down, Slam, and Juliet, Naked. He has also published three works of non-fiction, Fever Pitch, Songbook (a collection of essays about songs that influenced his life), and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree, as well as a book of short stories, Otherwise Pandemonium. Hornby wrote the screenplay for the film An Education for which he was nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay.

NYC dub & bass specialists: performers, label, events since Y2K spearheaded by Emch. DJ or live, worldwide. Check http://www.subatomicsound.com Founded Dub Champions Festival (USA/ Europe). Stacks of music w/ Lee Scratch Perry, Anthony B, Elephant Man, Jahdan, and more.  Spearheaded by Emch Subatomic Sound is the label and Subatomic Sound System is the crew, DJ, live band, production team and radio show on www.BrooklynRadio.com

Select list of Subatomic Sound System shows...
Dub Champions Festival USA & Europe tours 2011-2019 w/ Lee Perry
USA May 2019 tour w/Julian Marley 
Coachella 2013 w/ Lee Scratch Perry
Red Bull Music Academy  2014 NYC  w/ Lee Scratch Perry & Adrian Sherwood

Check www.SubatomicSound.com for good stuff.
www.DubChampions.com for the festival.

Latest releases: 
SS039 Subatomic Sound & Screechy Dan "Babylon Soon Fall"
SS038 Subatomic Sound & Junior Dread "Revolution 2 Freedom"
SS037 Subatomic Sound & Screechy Dan "Champion Sound"
SS036 Subatomic Sound System "Shaolin Dub"
SS035 Sting & Shaggy "Morning is Coming" Subatomic Sound System remix
SS034 Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound "A Me"
SS033 Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound "Super Ape Returns To Conquer"
SS032 Word Sound Power "Discipline"
SS031 NYC-2-Africa-2-Brasil
SS030
SS029 Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound "Black Ark Vampires"
SS028
SS027
SS026
SS025 Noble Society "Living the Life"
SS022 Anthony B "Dem Can't Stop We From Talk - Remixed" LP (digital) March 2012
SS024 Anthony B meets Subatomic Sound "Dem Can't Stop We From Talk" vinyl Oct 2011
SS023 Anthony B meets Dubblestandart "Dem Can't Stop We From Talk rmx" vinyl Oct 2011
SS021 Sancocho e' Tigres "Lujo de Pobre" LP (digital)
SS020 Sancocho e' Tigres "Lujo de Pobre: Single & Samples" EP (digital) 
SS019 Elephant Man "Vampires & Informers" LP (digital) April 2011
SS018 Elephant Man "Vampires & Informers"  (vinyl) 
SS016 NYC-2-Africa Nov 2010
SS017 Elephant Man "Vampires & Informers" EP (digital) Oct 2010
SS015 Dubblestandart meets David Lynch & Lee Scratch Perry "Chrome Optimism" (digital & vinyl) Sept 2010
SS014 Subatomic Sound System meets Ari-Up & Lee Scratch Perry "Hello, Hell is Very Low" (vinyl) Aug 2010
SS009 Lee Scratch Perry & Dubblestandart meet  Subatomic Sound System & Jahdan Blakkamoore "Blackboard Jungle" (vinyl) April 209
SS008 Subatomic Sound System meets Lee Scratch Perry "Iron Devil" (vinyl) Oct 2008

For over a decade Emch has been the producer, selector, and musician behind Subatomic Sound System and the Subatomic Sound label. Founded at the turn of the millennium, NYC’s Subatomic Sound System has built a reputation worldwide for explosive shows, genre bending production, and breaking down barriers with their unique adaptation of 1970’s Jamaican sound system culture and dub reggae studio techniques to all types of bass heavy music genres, current technology, and live performances. A record label, DJ/production crew, live band, and event promoters, the Subatomic Sound crew is at work in NYC on every level. For 3 years, Subatomic Sound Radio blasted out to a footprint of eleven million terrestrial listeners in the greater NYC area on KEXP's Radio New York broadcast, 91.5fm and also via BrooklynRadio.com  

Subatomic Sound System has toured throughout N. America, Europe, & Asia  including with Lee Scratch Perry at NYC's Central Park, RBMA NYC, Poland's One Love, and Moscow's Milk with John Forte.

As the Subatomic Sound record label head, Emch has produced and released dub reggae innovator Lee Scratch Perry's first dubstep tracks plus eclectic collaborations with icons like filmmaker David Lynch, Prince Far-i, & UK punk pioneer Ari Up of the Slits as well as new school torchbearers like Anthony B, Elephant Man, Jahdan Blakkamoore, Dubblestandart, & his own group Subatomic Sound System.

Want to book Subatomic Sound? Hit us on Soundcloud or mail BOOKING (at) SubatomicSound (dot) COM  

Pushing dub and bass globally! Next stop your city or festival?

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