guardian.co.uk

Dark Night of the Soul, the hotly anticipated new album by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, will be “released” as a blank recordable CD with a note encouraging fans to download it from an illegal filesharing network. Although the album can be heard through an authorised internet stream, it will not receive an official physical or digital release, the group have announced, due to an unspecified legal dispute with EMI.

As previously reported, Dark Night of the Soul is the second collaboration between producer Danger Mouse and singer-songwriter Sparklehorse. It features contributions from Iggy Pop, Suzanne Vega and members of Pixies, the Flaming Lips, the Strokes and the Shins.

Unable to purchase the music, fans are encouraged to buy the project’s accompanying book, with photographs by filmmaker David Lynch, which comes with a blank recordable CD-R. “All [CD-Rs] will be clearly labelled: ‘For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will,'” the website states. The limited-edition book and CD-R cost $50 (£33), or fans can buy a poster and CD-R for just $10 (£6.60).

The reason for the unconventional release is unclear. “Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release the music for Dark Night of the Soul without fear of being sued by EMI,” the website reads. EMI have released several previous Sparklehorse albums, including the 2006 Danger Mouse collaboration.

For the moment, the only way to hear Dark Night of the Soul is to download it from an illegal filesharing network, or to stream it from the website of US public radio network NPR. While the NPR stream has been active since Friday, it’s unknown how long it will remain online. “We don’t have a definite take-down date,” producer Robin Hilton told Billboard. “It’s up in the air.”

And while it’s pretty clear what Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse intend for people to do with the CD-R – that is, download and burn the album – the artists are keeping coy. As the website states, “Danger Mouse … hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is.”