The Observer’s Sean O’Hagan, a long time friend of the band, spent 18 months following them from Fez to Dublin, as they recorded New Line On The Horizon.

He’s captured his travels on film and in part one of this exclusive – but brief- footage the band begins sessions in a converted riad in Morocco.

Watch the video on guardian.co.uk

In part two, available on guardian.co.uk next week, U2 continue recording in Dublin, New York and London, and you can read the full interview and story of the album in next week’s Observer Music Monthly.

This new film, ‘Here Is What Is’ contains footage of Lanois working with Eno and U2 in Morocco, as well as material shot with Emmylou Harris, Garth Hudson, Willie Nelson, Sinead O’Connor and Billy Bob Thornton.

‘Here Is What Is’ premieres at the Toronto Film Festival this September. A preview of the film can be seen on Daniel Lanois’ website.

The interview with U2′s guitarist is for subscribers only, but we’re sure the good people at Hot Press won’t mind if we share a few choice quotes with you.

To what extent did you use Bill Graham as a sounding board?

“Bill was very important to us from the beginning. [...] We’d meet him from time to time and play him some stuff, and in a very touching way he would mentor us, give us records to listen to that he felt were important for us to hear, stuff that maybe we hadn’t come across before. And I think he filled a certain kind of almost big brother role with the band, and we certainly appreciated all his advice and consideration.”

Is this your latest psycho-geographical adventure (in Morocco), trying to channel the atmosphere of a place into the music?

“I think it is. It was one of those ideas that wouldn’t go away. Bono suggested it a good while ago. He throws out ideas a lot, and a lot of them do not necessarily get met with the greatest enthusiasm. I would probably be the one most ready to go for it, Adam is fairly easygoing, Larry is hard to persuade a lot of times. In this case, to everyone’s amazement, Larry pretty early on went, “I think there’s something to this; it sounds like a good idea.””

Are these songwriting sessions for a U2 album or an extra-curricular endeavour?

“It’s a U2 project, and one of the luxuries we’ve afforded ourselves is not to have to think about exactly what it will be or how it’ll be finished or when it’ll be released.”

Read the full article at Hot Press (if you subscribe).

As atu2.com reported last week, Daniel Lanois was recently spotted hanging out with the band in a Dublin studio. We can confirm this and add the news that Lanois is not alone… his old friend ‘Ben O’Rian’ has come along for the ride. Allegedly.

Meanwhile, Fez-based blog ‘The View from Fez’ is trying to catch up with Bono.