Simon Bonney is back with his first new Crime & The City Solution album in a decade, titled the killer and out October 20 via Mute. Bonney and Bronwyn Adams made the album in Berlin with producer Martin J Fiedler and it features Frederic Lyenn (Piano, Bass, Synth), Donald Baldie (Guitar), Georgio Valentino (Synth, Guitar), Chris Hughes (Drums, Percussion) and Joshua Murphy (Piano, Guitar).
The seeds of the album are unusual, beginning with Bonney applying for a PhD program during Covid lockdown. “Naturally”, says Simon, “I sat and I pieced together a PhD application about decision making in Afghanistan in the late ‘80s. But, as it turned out, it was actually more of a record than it was a PhD.”
The PhD had Bonney travelling around the world — the Indo-Pacific region, particularly — and delivering aid programs. Witnessing places with high levels of violence made a profound impact on him and shaped the album. “There was a building that was absolutely destroyed by a missile that was half a mile off the actual target,” he says of visiting Ukraine. “The buildings on either side were perfectly intact, but in the middle was a crater. Yet, in the face of such uncertainty, there was this incredible resilience that seemed to be born of accepting life as it was at that moment, no matter how challenging and uncertain.”
The first single from the album is its elegiac closing number, “Peace in My Time,” which Bonney says is “about acceptance, more than just peace,” adding, “I don’t think there’ll ever be ‘peace’ – nothing surprises me anymore about what people do to each other. But the song is about the acceptance of uncertainty and also an acceptance of who you are.”
Watch the “Peace in My Time” video below.
Crime & The City Solution have UK/EU dates this fall, and those are listed below.
THE KILLER:
1. Rivers of Blood
2. Hurt You, Hurt Me
3. River of God
4. Brave Hearted Woman
5. Killer
6. Witness
7. Peace In My Time
CRIME & THE CITY SOLUTION LIVE DATES:
11/23/2023 – Haacht, BE, Can’t Live In a Living-Room
11/24/2023 – London, UK – The Moth Club
11/25/2023 – Bristol, UK – The Cube Cinema
11/26/2023 – Colchester, UK, – Colchester Arts Centre
11/29/2023 – Paris, FR – La Boule Noire
11/30/2023 – Geneva, CH – L’Usine
12/1/2023 – Karlsruhe, DE – P8
12/2/2023 – Ebensee, AT – Kino Ebensee
12/3/2023 – Zagreb, HR – Mochvara
12/4/2024 – Milano,IT – Arci Bellezza
12/5/2023 – Munich, DE – Muffatwerk
12/6/2023 – Prague, CZ – Fuchs2
12/7/2023 – Hungary, HU – Turbina
12/8/2023 – Linz, AT – Stadtwerkstatt
12/9/2023 – Poznań, PL – 2Progi
12/10/2023 – Warsaw, PL – Niebo
12/12/2023 – Dresden, DE – Chemiefabrik
12/13/2023 – Hamburg, DE – Hafenklang
12/14/2023 – Copenhagen, DK – BETA
12/15/2023 – Oslo, NO – Salt
12/16/2023 – Stockholm, SE – HUS7
12/17/2023 – Gothenburg, SE – Musikens Hus
12/19/2023 – Berlin, DE – Urban Spree