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Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases
Corinne Bailey Rae announces new album inspired by Theaster Gates archive
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 20 June 2023
Corinne Bailey Rae will release her first album since 2016 later this year. Several years in the making, ‘Black Rainbows’ is inspired by items collected by visual artist Theaster Gates at the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago.
“I knew when I walked through those doors that my life had changed forever”, says Bailey Rae. “Engaging with these archives and encountering Theaster Gates and his practice has changed how I think about myself as an artist and what the possibilities of my work can be. This music has come through seeing. Seeing has been like hearing, for me. While I was looking, songs/sounds appeared”.
Gates’ archive includes Frankie Knuckles’ personal vinyl collection, more than 60,000 glass lantern slides, and a collection of books and periodicals donated by the Johnson Publishing Company, publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines.
Alongside the album, Bailey Rae is also putting out a book titled ‘Refraction/Reflection Of The Arts Bank’, photographed by Koto Bolofo, plus there will be live performances, lectures, visuals and exhibitions as part of the wider project.
‘Black Rainbows’ is set for release on 15 Sep. Among the shows, Bailey Rae will play three nights at London’s Ladbroke Hall on 25, 26 and 28 Oct. Right now, you can listen to first single ‘New York Transit Queen’.
