''Seven Souls'' is a 1989 album by the American music group

Material A material is a matter, substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an Physical object, object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical property, physical ...

. A collaboration with author

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major Postmodern literature, postmodern author who influen ...

, the album features his narration of passages from his novel ''

The Western Lands ''The Western Lands'' is a 1987 novel by William S. Burroughs. The final book of the trilogy that begins with '' Cities of the Red Night'' (1981) and continues with '' The Place of Dead Roads'' (1983), its title refers to the western bank of the ...

'' (1987) set to musical accompaniment. The album was re-released in 1997 with bonus tracks, three re-mixes that were added to the beginning of the album. In 1998, a new title, ''The Road to the Western Lands'', was issued, composed of new mixes of the tracks. "Equation" / "Ineffect" was released as a single in 1989 (Virgin America, PR 3380).

Track listing

#"Ineffect" (

Bill Laswell William Otis Laswell (born February 12, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and record label owner. He has been involved in thousands of recordings with many collaborators from all over the world. His music draws from funk, wo ...

Nicky Skopelitis Nicky Skopelitis (born January 19, 1960) is an American guitarist and composer of Greek descent. He also has performed on banjo, oud, lute, keyboards and other instruments. Although Skopelitis has recorded few albums as a bandleader, he has app ...

Simon Shaheen Simon Shaheen (; born in Ma'alot-Tarshiha, Israel) is an American oud and violin player, and composer. At the age of 2, Shaheen moved with his family to Haifa, but spent most of the weekends in Tarshiha, an Arab village in Upper Galilee. The ...

) – 7:34 #"Seven Souls" (Laswell, Burroughs) – 5:42 #"Soul Killer" (Laswell, Burroughs) – 4:32 #"The Western Lands" (Laswell, Skopelitis, Burroughs) – 6:54 #"Deliver" (Laswell, Skopelitis,

Foday Musa Suso Foday Musa Suso (18 February 1950 – 25 May 2025) was a Gambian musician and composer. Biography He was a member of the Mandinka ethnic group and was a griot. Griots are the oral historians and musicians of the Mandingo people who live in se ...

) – 5:48 #"Equation" (Laswell, Skopelitis,

Rammellzee Rammellzee (stylized RAMM:ΣLL:ZΣΣ, pronounced "Ram: Ell: Zee"; December 15, 1960 – June 28, 2010) was a visual artist, gothic futurist graffiti writer, painter, performance artist, art theoretician, sculptor and a hip-hop musician from New Yo ...

) – 5:06 #"The End of Words" (Laswell, Burroughs) – 5:06

Seven Souls (Remix)

#"The Western Lands" Dangerous Road Mix(Laswell, Burroughs) – 8:31 #"Seven Souls" im Simenon Mix(Tim Simenon, Burroughs) – 7:06 #"Soul Killer" emote Control Mix by Terre Thaemlitz(Terre Thaemlitz, Burroughs) – 8:15 The rest of the album as per the original release

The Road to the Western Lands

#Bill Laswell – "The Seven Souls" (Burroughs, Laswell) – 5:47 #

Talvin Singh Talvin Singh OBE (born 1970) is a British musician, producer, and composer. A tabla player, he is known for creating an innovative fusion of Indian classical music with drum and bass. Singh is generally considered involved with an electronica ...

– "The Western Lands" (Burroughs, Talvin Singh) 6:36 #DJ Soul Slinger – "The Western Lands" (Burroughs, DJ Soul Slinger) 5:09 #

Spring Heel Jack Spring Heel Jack is an English electronic music duo, consisting of John Coxon and Ashley Wales. Formed in 1993 in London, England, Spring Heel Jack began their career exploring drum and bass and Oldschool jungle, jungle, but have since branc ...

– "The Road to the Western Lands" (Burroughs, John Coxon, Ashley Wales) 6:17 #The Audio Janitor (

DJ Olive DJ Olive (also known as The Audio Janitor; born Gregor Asch) is an American disc jockey and turntablist. He is known for producing music generally in the electronic music, electronic genre, with strong influences of Dub music, dub, and free imp ...

) – "Joan's Haunted Hints at the Gate to the Western Lands" (Burroughs, DJ Olive) 6:37 #Bill Laswell – "Seven Souls" he Secret Name(Burroughs, Laswell) 10:37 #Material – "The Western Lands" Dangerous Road Mix(Burroughs, Laswell) – 8:31

Personnel

Material *

– 4, 6 and 8-string basses, acoustic guitar, tapes, percussion Additional personnel *

– voice *

– voice ("Equation") *

– voice ("Deliver") *Fahiem Dandan – voice ("Ineffect") *

– 6 and 12 string guitars, baglama, coral sitar, saz,

Fairlight CMI The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is a digital synthesizer, music sampler, and digital audio workstation introduced in 1979 by Fairlight. — with links to some Fairlight history and photos It was based on a commerc ...

– violin * L. Shankar – violin *

Jeff Bova Jeff Bova (born Jeffrey Bova in 1953) is an American musician. He has been active in the music industry since the mid-1970s, contributing to recordings by significant mainstream artists like Celine Dion, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Eric Clapton, ...

– electronic keyboards *

Sly Dunbar Lowell Fillmore "Sly" Dunbar (born 10 May 1952, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican drummer, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie. Biography Dunbar began playing at 15 in a ba ...

– drums,

Fairlight Fairlight may refer to: In places: * Fairlight, East Sussex, a village east of Hastings in southern England, UK * Fairlight, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia * Fairlight, Saskatchewan, Canada In other uses: * Fairlight (company), ...

Aïyb Dieng Aïyb Dieng is a Senegalese drummer and percussionist specializing in hand drums. He has recorded two solo album, including '' Rhythmagick'' (1995), and has worked with a wide range of musicians, including as a regular collaborator of bassist/pr ...

– percussion "The Western Lands" Dangerous Road Mix'' *

Jah Wobble John Joseph Wardle (born 11 August 1958), known by the stage name Jah Wobble, is an English bass guitarist and singer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s; ...

– bass *Bill Laswell – bass samples *Nicky Skopelitis – guitar *Tetsu Inoue – electronics *

DJ Spooky Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American Electronic music, electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics "illbient" or "trip hop". ...

– noise "The Seven Souls" he Secret Name'' *Alicia Renee aka Blue Eyes: vocals *Nicky Skopelitis: guitar *Bill Laswell: bass, keyboards, turntable

Production

*Recorded at Platinum Island Studio and BC Studio, New York. *Produced by Bill Laswell / Material.

Release history

*''Seven Souls'' – 1989 – Virgin, CDV 2596 (CD) *''Seven Souls (Remix)'' – 1997 – Triloka Records, 314 534 905-2 (CD) *''The Road to the Western Lands'' – 1998 – Triloka / Mercury, 314 558 021-2 (2x 12" / CD)

In popular culture

The track "Seven Souls" is featured in the opening scene and in the closing credits of ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey American Mafia, Mafia boss who suffers from panic attacks. He reluct ...

'' Season 6 episode, " Members Only".

References

External links

*
''Seven Souls''
at

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

{{Authority control 1989 albums Material (band) albums Albums produced by Bill Laswell Virgin Records albums William S. Burroughs