A discussion in our offices arose about who would be putting out the Danger Mouse, Mark Linkous (of Sparklehorse) record Dark Night Of The Soul. Turns out no one is, and the packaging won’t even come with music.

A little digging led us to ask some friends at Waxploitation, who gave us the official low down. Specifically, that a spokesperson for Danger Mouse had this to say:

“Danger Mouse’s new project Dark Night Of The Soul consists of an album length piece of music by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and a host of guest vocalists, along with a collection of original David Lynch photography inspired by and based on the music.

The photographs, which provide a visual narrative for the music, are compiled in a limited edition, hand numbered 100+ page book which will now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: ‘For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.’

Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release the recorded music for Dark Night Of The Soul without fear of being sued by EMI.

Danger Mouse remains hugely proud of Dark Night Of The Soul and hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is.”

This would explain both the packaging, and the fact it’s already starting to pop up on pirate sources. This is an exciting way to make your music available to the masses, yet another sad reminder that intellectual property is simultaneously highly coveted and disregarded so easily. Regardless of what you may think of the music, a record of this magnitude should not have to resort to strategic tactics to have a monetary value.