Trevor Horn revisits 11 of his favourite songs released between 1982 to 2012 on his new album ‘Echoes – Ancient & Modern’. 

Featuring a big-name line-up of vocalists including Marc Almond, Tori Amos, Rick Astley, Andrea Corr, Steve Hogarth, Lady Blackbird, Jack Lukeman Iggy Pop, Seal, Toyah Wilcox & Robert Fripp and Horn himself, the LP sees the classic songs reimagined with orchestral arrangements. 

Marking his debut on the Deutsche Grammophon label, the record includes tracks originally performed by Pat Benatar, The Cars, Depeche Mode, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Billy Idol, Joe Jackson, Grace Jones, Kendrick Lamar, Nirvana and Yes. 

In conversation with his long-time friend and collaborator Paul Morley, Horn said of the project: “Finding the right singers was as important as finding the songs, probably more so. It’s an album by me, as a kind of auteur. I’m the artist commissioning other artists rather than them hiring me.” 

The musician – who performs, plays and produces on the album – added: “Building a feeling into a song is a tricky, intangible thing to do. There are lots of technical and psychological shortcuts to recording a song, but none to actually make it feel real. That remains a studio secret.”

The lead single, Lady Blackbird’s rendition of Grace Jones’ Slave To The Rhythm, is out now. 

‘Echoes – Ancient & Modern’ is out December 1 and available to pre-order now. 

Tracklist: Trevor Horn – Echoes – Ancient & Modern

1. Tori Amos – Swimming Pool (Drank) (Kendrick Lamar)

2. Rick Astley – Owner Of A Lonely Heart (Yes)

3. Lady Blackbird – Slave To The Rhythm (Grace Jones)

4. Toyah & Robert Fripp – Relax (Frankie Goes To Hollywood)

5. Seal – Steppin’ Out (Joe Jackson)

6. Marc Almond – Love Is A Battlefield (Pat Benatar)

7. Steve Hogarth – Drive (The Cars)

8. Andrea Corr & Jack Lukeman – White Wedding (Billy Idol)

9. Iggy Pop – Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode)

10. Jack Lukeman – Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)

11. Trevor Horn – Avalon (Roxy Music)

Listen to Lady Blackbird’s take on Slave To The Rhythm below.

‘Echoes – Ancient & Modern’ opens in the 21st century with Kendrick Lamar’s Swimming Pool (Drank). Its potent lyrics appealed to Horn, who worked with singer-songwriter Tori Amos to create this cinematic cover in which Amos’s vocals, underpinned by subtle string writing, totally transfigure the rap original. As the producer notes: “It sets everything up like it’s the beginning of a song cycle.”

Aware of a certain expectation that he’ll revisit his back catalogue on an album like this, he reworks three of his biggest ’80s hits here. Rick Astley’s rendition of Yes’s US No. 1 Owner of a Lonely Heart is newly endowed with a dance groove. Lady Blackbird successfully takes up the challenge of reinterpreting the inimitable Grace Jones’s Slave To The Rhythm”. “She sings it on her own terms,” says Horn, “and takes the song somewhere else.” Toyah Wilcox is the vocalist in an unexpected 21st-century version of Relax – “The pure joy of Toyah, which also means her husband Robert Fripp and his fantastical guitar, seemed about as wonderfully distant from Frankie Goes To Hollywood as it’s possible to get.”

Staying in the early ’80s, Horn pairs the “ineffable cool” of Seal with Joe Jackson’s Steppin’ Out and the “wounded but undefeated” voice of Marc Almond with the Pat Benatar hit Love Is A Battlefield. Marillion lead singer Steve Hogarth sings The Cars’ Drive – “It’s a sad song,” says Horn, “and I tried to make it even sadder.” Meanwhile, the “effortless” Andrea Corr is joined by fellow Irish singer Jack Lukeman to put a very different spin on Billy Idol’s White Wedding. 

From the end of the decade, we hear Iggy Pop’s version of Depeche Mode’s game-changing Personal Jesus. “Iggy adds another truth to whatever he does,” notes Horn. Jack Lukeman returns, this time on solo duty, for the album’s one ’90s original, Nirvana’s legendary Smells Like Teen Spirit, and Trevor Horn himself supplies lead vocals in Roxy Music’s Avalon of 1982. He’s chosen to end the album with this track: “It’s a little like at the end of the show I’m saying this is me – the producer, the band leader, but also the performer – signing off. For now…”

‘Echoes – Ancient & Modern’ is out December 1 on Deutsche Grammophon and available to pre-order now.