Alva Noto teams up with punk royalty for a spoken word tribute to Walt Whitman.

German electronic artist Carsten Nicolai, aka Alva Noto, and instrumental duo Tarwater are paying tribute to the great US poet Walt Whitman with an album voiced by Iggy Pop.

A project first realised on the 2014 CD release of Children Of Adam, Leaves Of Grass takes its name from Whitman’s most famous collection and sees Alva Noto and Tarwater creating the sonic backdrop for seven tracks of Iggy’s gravel-voiced readings.

Fresh from scoring The Revenant with Ryuichi Sakomoto, Noto has created a threatening, post-industrial environment for Whitman’s masterpiece.

Iggy Pop had this to say on Walt Whitman: “You know, I think he had something like Elvis. Like Elvis ahead of his time, one of the first manic American populists… His poetry is always about motion and rushing ahead, and crazy love and blood pushing through the body… Whitman says, even the most beautiful face is not as beautiful as the body. And to say that in the middle of the 19th century is outrageous. It’s a slap in the face. Look at the popular, well-educated poets of the time, those sensitive noblemen. But Whitman writes: ‘Fuck ass.'”

Released on Morr Music with no digital version planned, Leaves Of Grass is only available in a limited vinyl edition of just 500 copies, complete with embossed artwork. Listen to snippets and pre-order the record ahead of its release on February 5.

Iggy Pop also has an album on the way with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, which is sounding pretty promising. [via The Vinyl Factory]

Tracklist:

1. As Adam Early In The Morning / I Am he That Aches With Love (EP Version)
2. Ages And Ages Returning At Intervals (EP Version)
3. From Pent-Up Aching Rivers (EP Version)
4. A Woman Waits For Me (EP Version)
5. Out Of The Rolling Ocean The Crowd (EP Version)
6. To The Garden The World (EP Version) Iggy Pop / Tarwater
7. Leaves Of Grass (EP Version) Iggy Pop / Tarwater