Gorillaz (1998-)
Damon Albarn and
cartoonist Jamie Hewlett are the creators of the cartoon band
Gorillaz; Damon writes the songs and provides vocals on the majority
of them while Jamie directs the videos and draws the band. Gorillaz
has been a big success around the world selling around 18 million
copies of their studio albums. Their latest project, a web series
called Song
Machine,
was unveiled in January 2020. There is also a Gorillaz movie in the
works.
Film soundtracks
Damon collaborated with
classical composer
Michael Nyman and recorded a soundtrack for
Ravenous in 1998.
A year later, he worked with
ex-Sugarcube
Einar Örn Benediktsson on the soundtrack for 101 Reykjavík.
He also wrote and recorded tracks for Ordinary Decent Criminal
and
penned "Closet Romantic" for
Trainspotting. More recently,
Damon's Electric Wave Bureau group has scored the soundtracks for the
British films Broken and The Kid Who Would Be King.
World
music
Mali Music (2002):
The album based on recordings Damon made whilst visiting Mali on a
trip for Oxfam. Released through his co-founded world music label Honest Jon's.
Africa Express (2006-): A unique collaboration project between African and Western musicians.
Organised
by Damon, the project intends to show Western musicians how rich the
African music scene is. So far, there have been around twenty Africa
Express shows in Europe and Africa. Western
artists who have been involved in the project include Norman
Cook, The Magic Numbers, Franz Ferdinand, Hard-Fi and many
more. In 2013, the first ever Africa
Express album Maison Des Jeunes was recorded in Mali. The
follow-up album Egoli was recorded in South
Africa and released in 2019.
DRC Music (2011): A team of
Congolese musicians and Western record producers. Their one and only
album, Kinshasa One Two, was recorded in Congo over five days
in July 2011.
Solo albums
Democrazy (2003): A low-profile limited
edition solo record released through
Honest Jon's. The album was compiled of raw demos Damon recorded on a
four-track in hotel rooms during Blur's Think Tank US tour.
Everyday Robots
(2014): Damon's first proper solo
album which was produced by Richard Russell, the owner of XL
Recordings. The album has been described as his most personal work yet
and features guest appearances from Brian Eno, Natasha Khan
and the Leytonstone City Mission
Choir.
Supergroups
The Good, The Bad & The Queen
(2007-2019): Damon was the frontman behind The Good, The
Bad & The Queen, the UK-themed album project with bassist Paul
Simonon, guitarist Simon Tong and drummer Tony Allen.
The group's last album, Merrie Land, was produced by Tony
Visconti and released in 2018.
Rocket Juice & The Moon
(2011-2012): A low-profile afrobeat/funk supergroup including
Damon,
Flea and Tony Allen. Although officially announced in 2011, the
group had been jamming together since 2008's Africa Express gigs.
Rocket Juice & The Moon's only studio album was released in 2012.
Opera/theatre
scores and other compositions
Monkey: Journey To The West
(2007-2013): A Chinese modern opera featuring an eclectic score by
Damon and visuals by Jamie Hewlett. The opera debuted at the
Manchester International Festival 2007 and the album based on the
score was released the next year. In the summer of 2013, the opera was revived
for a three-week residency in New York.
Dr Dee (2011-2012):
Officially described as "An English Opera",
Dr Dee is a stage show about the life of John Dee. Composed and
performed by Damon Albarn and directed by
Rufus Norris, it premiered at the Manchester International
Festival 2011.
The soundtrack for the opera was released in the following year.
wonder.land (2015-2016):
Damon's debut musical, wonder.land, was premiered at Manchester
International Festival 2015. The musical is a very modern take
on
Alice in Wonderland and is directed by Rufus Norris. The
soundtrack for the opera was released in the following year.
Le Vol du Boli (2020):
A musical project by Damon Albarn and Abderrahmane Sissako. It
was performed
at Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, in October 2020.
The Nearer the Fountain, More
Pure the Stream Flows (2020-2021): A composition inspired by the
landscapes of Iceland. Damon planned to perform the
piece in European concert halls in the middle of 2020, but the tour was postponed to
2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Miscellaneous
- In the 1990s, he worked with
Matt Sharp on a Gary Numan tribute album and The Rentals'
Seven More Minutes.
- Acted in the movie
Face (1997) and lend
his voice to a character in the
Icelandic animation Anna and the Moods
(2007).
- Fatboy Slim's album
Palookaville features Damon's vocals on "Put It Back Together".
Also, the last two Massive Attack albums - 100th Window and
Heligoland - include his contributions.
- Damon has done
some production
work for other artists. In 2008, he produced a
few tracks for Amadou & Mariam's Welcome To Mali album. A few years later, he co-produced Bobby Womack's
comeback album The Bravest Man In The Universe.
amon Albarn was
born to a hippy family in Leytonstone, East London. His
mother, Hazel Albarn worked as a stage designer for Joan
Littlewood's theatre company at the Theatre Royal
Stratford East in London and was working on Mrs Wilson's
Diary just before Damon was born. Damon's father, an
artist Keith Albarn was mainly involved in TV arts
programming and was interested in designing and making
modern furniture. He eventually became the manager of art
jazz-rock group Soft Machine. Hazel Albarn came from
Lincolnshire and Keith Albarn from Nottinghamshire. When
they had met each other, they decided to move to London
to experience its wide cultural-scene. When Damon was
growing up, his parents listened mostly to old blues,
Indian ragas and African music. Damon didn't apparently
like much of them. His sister, Jessica (an artist, too)
was born in 1971.