Sturgill Simpson announces new album “Sound & Fury”

Sturgill Simpson has announced early details for ‘Sound & Fury’, the title of both his new album arriving this fall via Elektra Records and the original Japanese anime film he created with some of the biggest names in its genre which is simultaneously being released by Netflix.  You can watch the first trailer for the album including film footage and music from it below, which was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend during a panel featuring Simpson and two of the filmmakers, writer/director Jumpei Mizusaki and character designer Takashi Okazaki. 
Simpson comments, “We went in without any preconceived notions and came out with a really sleazy, steamy rock n roll record.  It’s definitely my most psychedelic.  And also my heaviest.  I had this idea that it’d be really cool to animate some of these songs, and we ended up with a futuristic, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, samurai film.”

‘Sound & Fury’ was produced by Simpson and marks his first, full-length release since 2016’s ‘A Sailor’s Guide To Earth,’ which won ‘Best Country Album’ at the Grammys and was nominated for ‘Album of the Year’.  The film is set entirely to music from the full album, with a different anime segment for each individual song, and was written and directed by Jumpei Mizusaki, founder of CG animation studio Kamikaze Douga and director for the animated film, ’Batman Ninja.’ Takashi Okazaki, creator of Japanese manga series ‘Afro Samurai,’ served as the film’s character designer. Additional directors include Masaru Matsumoto of Grayscale Arts (‘Starship Troopers:  Traitors of Mars’), Michael Arias (‘The Animatrix’,) Henry Thurlow and Arthell Isom of D’Art Shtajio, and Koji Morimoto (‘Akira’). Shunsuke Ochiai is co-executive producer.

Last month, Simpson unveiled a brand new track ‘The Dead Don’t Die,’ the original theme song for the film of the same name, written and directed by Jim Jarmusch.  The track marked his first new music in over three years. It also marks a change in direction from his original concept for the album ‘Sound & Furry’ about a squirrel who always gets the round in.