William Orbit has revealed that he will produce a new Queen album that will include unreleased songs featuring the late Freddie Mercury.
Known for his work with Madonna, Blur, Pink and Britney Spears, Orbit broke the news via Twitter, writing, “Am definitely working with QUEEN. Amazing songs. That's all I'm sayin 4 now. Watch this space.”
The project, tentatively titled “Queen Forever”, sees guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor recording new backing tracks to the Mercury material, just as they did for 1995’s “Made In Heaven” album.
“Roger and I have both been working on tracks in our spare time,” explained May last December. “A couple of them have Michael Jackson on as well, which adds another layer of interest. Freddie and Michael singing together and experimenting in the Eighties.”
“He and Freddie worked mainly at Michael's studio,” he added. “That's the tapes we have. Some of the tapes they worked on had us on them as well. But I never actually worked in the studio with Michael personally. Sometimes you come across a spare reel of tape and think, ‘Well, what's on that?’ And lo and behold, here's a tape of Freddie singing something we'd forgotten about.”
As for the songs with Jackson, May said there’s “at least one dancey, at least one ballady one. There's sort've three main contenders at the moment, possibly four.”
The album is expected before Christmas.
Queen recently completed a North America tour with vocalist Adam Lambert; later this month, they’ll perform at festivals in South Korea and Japan before heading to Australia and New Zealand as the world tour continues.
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