Theres an exciting new project in the pipeline for 2012. XL Records founder Richard Russell announced that he’s currently working on a project with Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn and soul legend Bobby Womack. Also, Lana Del Rey has contributed to one of the tracks from the album which is set to drop later this year. Neadless to say, theres going to be some pretty serious vocals on this album. This sort of cross-genre collaboration appears to be a trend for XL as evidenced by the previously released Jamie XX / Gil Scott-Heron album and Russell’s most recent project DRC Music. Russell remarked that is is a natural grouping as Womback contributed to the Gorillaz’s track “Stylo” and Russell and Damon worked on DRC Music together. In an interview with Billboard Richard Russell explained the mashup:

“I think it sounds like a very modern soul record, really. His voice is amazing and I think if people have been listening to things like Frank Ocean and the Weeknd then they’ll like it. I think those artists are very influenced by Bobby and you can join a lot of the dots.”

Gorillaz- Stylo