Nick Cave announces cinema release and live album for Idiot Prayer

Idiot Prayer was premiered in July, and saw Nick Cave perform alone at an empty Alexandra Palace in London.

The show featured Cave's debut live performance of Ghosteen track "Galleon Ship", and included a new song called "Euthanisia" which was recorded during the Skeleton Tree sessions.

Cave has today announced the release of Idiot Prayer in cinemas later this year, as well as a live album of the solo performance. He's also shared the full "Galleon Ship" performance as a preview.

The film, shot by cinematographer Robbie Ryan, sees Cave perform a variety of tracks from across his career.

He says of Idiot Prayer, "Idiot Prayer evolved from my Conversations With… events, performed over the last year or so. I loved playing deconstructed versions of my songs at these shows, distilling them to their essential forms - with an emphasis on the delivery of the words. I felt I was rediscovering the songs all over again, and started to think about going into a studio and recording these reimagined versions at some stage - whenever I could find the time."

"Then, of course, the world went into lockdown," Cave continues. "The Bad Seeds' global 2020 tour was postponed. Studios shut down. Venues shut down. And the world fell into an eerie, self-reflective silence. It was within this silence that I began to think about the idea of not only recording the songs, but also filming them - and so we started to assemble a small team, including the great cinematographer, Robbie Ryan, sound man, Dom Monks, and editor, Nick Emerson, with the intention to film as soon as it became feasible to get back to business in some way."

Cave adds, "Meanwhile, I sat at home working out how to play more songs in the Conversations format - new songs and songs from the Ghosteen album, Grinderman songs and early Bad Seeds stuff, and everything in between. We worked with the team at Alexandra Palace - a venue I have played and love - on securing a date to film just as soon as they were allowed to re-open the building to us. We had an amazing production team and crew, and what they did within this extraordinary situation was a marvel. Surrounded by Covid officers with tape measures and thermometers, masked-up gaffers and camera operators, nervous looking technicians and buckets of hand gel, together we created something very strange and very beautiful that spoke into this uncertain moment, but was in no way bowed by it."

He concludes, "This is the album taken from that film. It is a prayer into the void - alone at Alexandra Palace - a souvenir from a strange and precarious moment in history. I hope you enjoy it."