Italian producer Daniele Luppi and New York band Parquet Courts’ have teamed up for collaborative album, MILANO, out 27th Oct on Danger Mouse’s 30th Century Records.  The LP is inspired by mid-1980s Milan, with songs about misfits, fashionistas, outsiders and artists of the city, set against the backdrop of culture and creativity struggling to survive amidst rapid gentrification.

Ahead of MILANO‘s release comes the Diego Araujo-directed video for barnstorming lead single, Talisa featuring Yeah Yeah Yeahs vocalist Karen O.  The quirky clip is a homage to the memorable photoshoot scene in retro British-Italian film, Blow Up, whilst the song itself – written by Luppi and Karen O – is a love letter to Talisa Soto, a celebrated model, actress and close friend and muse of Gianni Versace.

Luppi says of the video:

“After my initial input and references, mostly the amazing photographer plus models scene in Antonioni’s Blow Up, I let Diego do his thing, the only caveat being I wanted to feel like we where in 1980s Milan.  Something seemingly quite out of reach since he was shooting in Quito, Ecuador – but he pulled it off: he found an Alfa Romeo collector, he created a Milanese subway sign and he stole the 25 year-old Betacams from the University of Cinema for the weekend shoot… Hopefully nobody will ever find out…”

Karen O adds:

“When Daniele brought up the indulgent Milan, 80’s fashion scene as an inspiration I immediately started scrolling through all the supermodels from back then and Talisa Soto stuck out as the best sounding name, I’ve always wanted to write a song with a woman’s name as the chorus and Talisa had that hook about it.”

MILANO is the unofficial sequel to Luppi and Danger Mouse’s 2011 album Rome, an epic ode to Italian film scores co-starring Norah Jones and Jack White.