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Yoko Ono, the multimedia artist widely vilified for her modern art antics and perceived role in breaking up The Beatles, is set to finally see the bulk of her music career reissued on vinyl and CD, as well as being available digitally for the first time.
The Yoko Ono Reissue Project, a joint effort between indie labels Secretly Canadian and Sean Ono Lennon's Chimera Music, has been three years in the making and will see eleven studio albums finally return to print, starting with 1968's infamous Yoko Ono/John Lennon avant-garde collaboration Two Virgins - more famous for its NSFW cover than any musical achievements - all the way to 1985's gimmicky, dated Starpeace, with some surprising moments of startling punk rock, feminist new wave and delicate lo-fi indie in-between - all, of course, recorded long before those genres truly existed.
With only one previous reissue series - in the 1990's via the CD-only label Rykodisc - this will finally make one of rock's most polarising oeuvres immediately accessible to new generations. Hated and derided by many of those who discovered her music via her status as a "Beatle wife," she has gone on to be cited as a major influence by artists ranging from Sonic Youth, Antony and Peaches to The B-52's, Boy George and Lady Gaga for her uncompromising, unapologetic style that alternates between abrasive and delicate, angry and beautiful.
The first wave of releases will be available on the 11th November, featuring the first two Lennon/Ono collaborations Two Virgins and Life With The Lions (1969), as well as her first solo album, 1970's seminal avant-garde screamo-punk effortYoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, with more to follow throughout 2017.
