out now: Laibach & Silence – White Christmas EP [Mute]

Artist:
Laibach & Silence

Title:
White Christmas EP

Label:
Mute

Cat#:
MUTE679

Release Date:
21st November 2024

Format:
download & streaming

Tracklist:
01.
White Christmas

02.
White Christmas
(Silence Night)

Press Info:
LAIBACH, have shared ‘White Christmas’, a two-track single release that follows their recent cover of ‘Strange Fruit’. For this special seasonal release, they have worked with fellow Slovenian artists, Silence, to examine the comforting bauble that adorns everyone’s festive season, and challenge people to scrutinise what lies beneath its warm veneer.

‘White Christmas’ was originally written by Irving Berlin – a Russian-born Jewish immigrant who didn’t celebrate Christmas – for the 1942 musical, Holiday Inn. The Bing Crosby version of the song, which reminisces about an old-fashioned Christmas, is not only the best-selling Christmas song of all time, it’s also the best-selling single ever according to Guinness World Records. True to the season, the song has an inherent melancholia about it, and was dedicated to Irvin Berlin’s three-week old son who died on Christmas Day.

Laibach – in collaboration with their compatriots Silence – invite us to consider what future Christmases, with the aggressive climate and political changes around the world, will look like. Let this track be a weapon in the war against misery and unhappiness.

Earlier this year the band released the remastered edition of Laibach’s classic album, Opus Dei and later this month, Record Store Day (29 November) will mark the first ever vinyl release of the band’s legendary John Peel Sessions. These sessions unveiled the first inklings of what Opus Dei would be, and the band’s 12-month salute to their 1987 album continues in December with the release of Opus Dei Revisited, which features two radical new interpretations of the album – one by Laibach, and the other by original producer Rico Conning.

Snippets: