David Byrne

If you know David Byrne only from his work with legendary new wavers Talking Heads, you're in for a treat. Start exploring the rest of his hugely varied output here, with "The Jezebel Spirit" from his 1981 joint venture with Brian Eno, My Life In the Bush of Ghosts, recorded during a break in his Talking Heads schedule; the characteristically restless percussion on "Lazy" from 2004's Grown Backwards; and the title cut from his Oscar®-winning soundtrack to The Last Emperor, another collaboration, this time with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su. Follow Byrne from Hollywood to Broadway, in Next Steps.

To call Byrne an innovator barely does the man justice: he's that and so much more, as you'll discover here when you set his work in the sphere of modern dance — 1981's The Catherine Wheel (Complete Score from the Broadway Musical), featuring the jittery "Big Blue Plymouth (Eyes Wide Open)" and the cod-reverential "What a Day That Was" — against his 2003 score for the movie Young Adam — released as Lead Us Not into Temptation — and his collage-like 1997 excursion into drum 'n' bass tinged alt rock, Feelings ("Dance On Vaseline"). Byrne brings his love of Latin rhythms to the fore, in Deep Cuts.

Here, Byrne continues the exploration of Latin sounds and rhythms he had begun in earnest with 1989's Rei Momo (see Next Steps) — his guest slots with Forro In the Dark on 2006's fusion project Bonfires of São João take us to north-eastern Brazil (home of "forró" music, notable for its distinct triangle and accordion sound) via New York; while a hook-up with Argentina's La Portuaria on 2007's Rio (featuring "Hoy No Le Temo a la Muerte") finds him trading vocals with a band after his own cross-cultural heart.

Although he had often followed extra-curricular tangents during his tenure with Talking Heads, the band's last studio album, 1988's Naked, marked the start of David Byrne's full immersion in solo material, as well as the debut of his own world music label, Luaka Bop. Over the course of his career to date, Byrne's seeming limitless talents, coupled with his unstinting musical curiosity, have delivered fascinating forays into full orchestral territory, including The Forest, a collaboration with Robert Wilson; a stunning variety of Latin-influenced projects (complex polyrhythmic beats have always been a feature of his alt rock output); and a diverse collection of TV and movie soundtracks: Blue In the Face, The Bachelor, Big Love Hymnal, and more.