Monkey - Journey to the West - The Album

Following on from the success of the Monkey: Journey to the West opera in Covent Garden, Damon Albarn has released the score from the opera on CD today. On first listen, it's like nothing I've heard before.

There are touches of Gorillaz style sound effects throughout the score and the occasional mandarin vocalist. Having not seen the opera, I can only imagine how impressive the visuals would have been when coupled with the music. As with Gorillaz albums, the Monkey album also contains some fantastic artwork by Jamie Hewlett, some of which is shown above.

You can also by a limited edition Vinyl Boxset of the album which contains a 68 page illustrated booklet of the production and a large Jamie Hewlett art poster.

Gorillaz and Jamie Hewlett BBC Olympics Ad

The BBC has teamed up with Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett to produce it's first advert for the Beijing Olympics. The advert is based on the ancient Chinese folk story "Journey to the West" - which the duo have recently put on as a full length version at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Tickets were sold out very quickly!