Leonard Cohen’s son and producer Adam Cohen has revealed that he is currently working on a posthumous album of his father’s music and says a new album can be expected next year.
“I was tasked with finishing a few more songs of his that we started together on the last album, so his voice is literally still in my life,” Adam told CBC’s Tom Power in a new interview to be aired on Oct. 1st. The pair were discussing The Flame, a book of previously unpublished poems by his father, due out Oct. 2nd.
“It’s a bizarre and delicious entanglement. … To make a long story short, I believe that there are some really beautiful new songs of Leonard Cohen that no one’s heard that are at some point going to come out.”
Adam, who produced his father’s last album You Want It Darker, goes on to explain that while they were making it, he implored his father to record additional poems that were not intended for the album. “I’d say, ‘Dad, just read this, just read this poem to a metronome and we’ll look at it later.’ Some of my favourite poems of his are actually in the vault and I was tasked with finishing them.”
Related: Fond Memories of the Great Leonard Cohen
He also notes that the unreleased recordings revisit the more “mytho-romantic” tone of Leonard Cohen’s older work.
When asked if he finds the task of working on his father’s compositions daunting, Adam says it’s “a luxury and a treat. … How wonderful that these songs exist, that I’m going to bring them and see them to completion, not just for me because I’m part of the family business, but for all the people out there who are going to hopefully delight in hearing his language, that inimitable contribution of his. You know, there are these songs that exist that he wanted finished, these incredible powerful readings that were set to music. … It’s going to surprise and delight.”
Related: Blank on Blank: Leonard Cohen on Moonlight – watch
