The Durutti Column, Vini Reilly’s project that emerged on the margins of British post-punk, returns with ‘Renascent’, their first album in 16 years, the first exactly since ‘A Paean to Wilson’, which dates back to 2010.
More than a conventional band, The Durutti Column is a project centered on the figure of Reilly, one of the first artists of Factory Records, the first label that launched Joy Division, which includes their legendary ‘Unknown Pleasures’ (1979).
Without making much noise, The Durutti Column is a reference that has been very influential in current pop, even in artists as unlikely in principle as Harry Styles, Frank Ocean or, from Spain, Natalia Lacunza, who considers The Durutti Column “her favorite group right now”; or in other more predictable artists like Youth Lagoon. In the last year, he has also returned to the fore, collaborating with Blood Orange on the wonderful ‘The Field’, which also included Caroline Polachek, among others.
Since their debut in 1980 with ‘The Return of the Durutti Column’, an album that already pointed to a sensibility far removed from its context, their proposal has been based on moving away from the dominant noise of post-punk to explore, also in notable albums such as ‘LC’ (1981), ‘Another Setting’ (1983), ‘Without Mercy’ (1984) and ‘Vini Reilly’ (1989), a range of sounds defined by clean guitars, melancholic atmospheres and more introspective influences that have connected with ambient, jazz or classical music.
The first preview of this ‘Renascent’, which can be heard starting July 31, is called ‘Liars’ and combines the usual guitars of The Durutti Column with heavenly choirs, a hip-hop-inspired rhythmic base, and Reilly’s whispered voice.
