Journey To The West

created by the team behind gorillaz (jamie hewlett and damon albarn), 'journey to the west' is performed by european and chinese musicians and singers, and produced by damon albarn. the album is based on 'monkey; journey to the west', the opera which premiered at manchester international festival in 2007 and opens at royal opera house in london in july, running for 3 nights before moving to a tented area at the o2 in october, where it will run for 6 weeks to over 100,000 people. with lyrics based on ancient chinese text, the album has been recorded in london and beijing over the last twelve months. the album opens with 'monkey's world', and into a 'heavenly peach banquest', escorted by 'monkey bee' and closes with the 'disappearing volcano'. with a running time of 50 minutes, 'journey to the west' consists of 22 tracks with vocals in mandarin. the bbc are using one of the tracks, along with animation by jamie hewlett for their coverage of the chinese olympics. the final artwork for 'journey to the west' is exclusively unveiled on the front cover of the observer music monthly the day before the album's release.