Sturgill Simpson Announces New Album Sound & Fury, Releases Trailer for Samurai Anime of the Same Name
Photo by Semi Song
Metamodern alt-country star Sturgill Simpson continued his Hollywood hot streak by sharing a trailer for his forthcoming animated Netflix film, Sound & Fury, at this past weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, also announcing his new album of the same name—his first since 2016’s A Sailor’s Guide To Earth.
“We went in without any preconceived notions and came out with a really sleazy, steamy rock ‘n’ roll record. It’s definitely my most psychedelic. And also my heaviest,” says Simpson in a statement. “I had this idea that it’d be really cool to animate some of these songs, and we ended up with a futuristic, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, samurai film.” Indeed, the trailer for Sound & Fury looks slick and thrilling, with clear debts to Akira, Paprika and the surreal car chase sequence at the end of Adolescence of Utena.
The gorgeous, cel-shaded CGI was handled by Japanese animation studio Kamikaze Douga, best known for helming the iconic opening credits for the anime Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Simpson made sure to recruit the best of the best: Big names attached to the project include character designer Takashi Okazaki (creator of Afro Samurai), and directors Koji Morimoto (an animator on Akira) and Masaru Matsumoto (Starship Troopers: Traitors of Mars).