Part 2 of Sean O’Hagan’s U2 video diary

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Having started his journey in Fez, Sean O’Hagan’s video diary now captures the band in recording sessions in Dublin, London and New York.

Watch the video on guardian.co.uk

In the interview published alongside the video, Bono mentions U2’s intention to release another album this year. Earlier interviews had already hinted at a dusk/dawn type of album combo.

The future is another question for another interview. How long can U2 stay meaningful? Where will rock’s greatest adventure end? For now, there is enough material left over from the sessions for an album that, Bono says, will be released before the end of the year. It will be “a more meditative album on the theme of pilgrimage”.

U2’s sessions in Fez: the video

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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

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U2 announces new album ‘No Line on the Horizon’

Mark your calendars! U2.com reports that ‘No Line on the Horizon’, the new studio album from U2, will be released on Monday 2nd March, 2009.

They write:

Written and recorded in various locations, No Line On The Horizon is the group’s 12th studio album and is their first release since the 9 million selling album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, released in late 2004.

Sessions for No Line On The Horizon began last year in Fez, Morocco, continued in the band’s own studio in Dublin, before moving to New York’s Platinum Sound Recording Studios, and finally being completed at Olympic Studios in London.

The album calls on the production talents of long-time collaborators Brian Eno and Danny Lanois, with additional production by Steve Lillywhite.

Billboard runs the story and has a quote from a ‘source’ who heard songs in their early forms: “…amazing and a little out there. I hope they don’t change anything.” (Read more.)

The Edge’s psycho-geographical adventure

The Edge is still buzzing from his trip to Morocco when he takes time to talk to Hot Press magazine’s Peter Murphy. They reflect on the past, remembering the late great Bill Graham and discuss U2’s collaboration with Eno and Lanois in Fez.

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).