This eight-song album is a collaboration between the acclaimed rock icon and
musician, songwriter, and producer Daniel Lanois, known for his work with U2,
Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, The Neville
Brothers and many others. As producer or co-producer Lanois won Grammy Awards in
1987, 1992, 1997, 2000, and 2001.
Young and Lanois have crossed paths musically over the course of many years,
including Lanois performances at Youngs Bridge School Benefit Concert and
Youngs performance at Farm Aid when Lanois was Willie Nelsons music director,
but this is the first time the two have recorded together. Recorded in Lanois
home in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles, Le Noise features Young on
acoustic and electric guitars with Lanois adding his trademark sonic textures,
creating one of the most sonically arresting albums Young has ever recorded. No
band, no overdubs, just a man on a stool and me doing a nice job on the
recording, as Lanois puts it.
Neil was so appreciative of the sonics that we presented to him, Lanois says.
He walked in the door and I put an acoustic guitar into his hands - one that I
had been working on to build a new sound. Thats the multi-layered acoustic
sound that you hear on the songs Love and War and Peaceful Valley Boulevard.
I wanted him to understand that Ive spent years dedicated to the sonics in my
home and that I wanted to give him something hed never heard before. He picked
up that instrument, which had everything - an acoustic sound, electronica, bass
sounds - and he knew as soon as he played it that we had taken the acoustic
guitar to a new level. Its hard to come up with a new sound at the back end of
50 years of rock and roll, but I think we did it.