Spiritualized’s J Spaceman and John Coxon have announced Music for William Eggleston’s Stranded in Canton, which is an instrumental score of Eggleston’s 1970s art film that will be out October on 18 through Fat Possum. Back in 2015, Spaceman, Coxon and friends performed a new original score live at a special film screening in London. The recording sat on a shelf for 10 years and will finally be unveiled through this release.
In addition, Spaceman and Coxon will perform the work in London, New York, Los Angeles and Eggleston’s hometown of Memphis, on the invitation of the photographer’s son Winston Eggleston.
Stranded in Canton is a black and white film portrait of Memphis in 1974 that was shot in bars and on street corners. The portrait showcases Eggleston’s friends carousing, playing music and firing pistols into the night sky. Jagged and intimate, the film is a handheld window into a different world.
Restored and edited by Eggleston in collaboration with the author Robert Gordon, the 77 minute film was screened in 2015 as part of Doug Aitken’s Station to Station, a 30 day arts festival in London where Aitken recruited Spaceman to provide a live score.
Stranded in Canton Track List
1. I was stranded in Canton
2. Last week I took a trip
3. It’s not gospel
4. What train blues
5. I don’t know what I can possibly do
6. Mother’s milk
7. Back Up William
8. Everybody in their life at one time or another
9. Love for the asking
10. Credits roll
Photo credit: Marv Watson