Matt Friedberger’s a funny old sort.

One half of the brilliant Fiery Furnaces, he’s indulged in more than his fair share of dodgy ideas over the last few years – most notably, the Furnaces album where their grandmother sung vocals (this was actually pretty decent) and his crazy rant about Radiohead (this was pretty bad). Next year, he’ll return to the fray with his most ambitious yet.

Solos represents a series of eight solo albums by Matt, the first six of which will see him play a single given instrument only. LPs will be released every two months in 2011, starting in January with Napoleonette, the piano record of the group (Matt also does vocals on each). The second album will be guitar.

It’s a subscription-based series, and the seventh and eight albums come as a bonus, delivered with the sixth. Those two aren’t quite solo; they’ll feature special guests alongside Matt, and we presume more than one instrument. You never know though. As well as albums seven and eight, subscribers will also be rewarded with an LP box to keep them in, with hand-mounted photo.

Away from Solos, Matt is planning to record the ninth Fiery Furnaces album before this Christmas. According to Thrill Jockey’s press release, it’s the group’s “catchiest and most aggressive effort to date, arranged as a concerto for Drum Kit and String Orchestra”, and may contain songs titled ‘I met the Queen of the Night in the daytime’, ‘I was so confused’, ‘The City of the Sun’, and our favourite, ‘As insufficient as an Eskimo’s kimono’.

Pre-sale on Solos starts here, today, limited to 700 box-sets. A small amount of albums will be sold individually in selected stores.

For a taster you can download a track from Napoloenette, titled ‘Shirley’, here.