New Leonard Cohen album Thanks For The Dance to be released in November

Kezban Özcan

A posthumous Leonard Cohen album will be released on November 22nd, entitled Thanks For The Dance.

The threads of this album can be traced back to You Want It Darker, a collaboration between Leonard Cohen and his son Adam: seven months after the passing of his father, Adam was back working on what remained from that previous record, often simple vocal takes. “In composing and arranging the music for his words, we chose his most characteristic musical signatures, in this way keeping him with us,” Adam Cohen has said.

“What moves me most about the album is the startled response of those who have heard it. ‘Leonard lives’! they say, one after the other.”

These initial recordings then became a global affair. Thanks to Javier Mas, part of Leonard Cohen’s live band for the last eight years of his touring, flying from Barcelona to Los Angeles to lay down guitar. On to Berlin via the People Festival and the city’s Cantus Domus choir, to the involvement of Damien Rice, Leslie Feist, Richard Reed Parry, Bryce Dessner and Dustin O’Halloran.

To Montreal and producer Daniel Lanois. And back to Los Angeles with the contributions of Jennifer Warnes, Beck and Michael Chaves.