The Audio Perv

U2 are set to release the documentary From The Sky Down on DVD, Blu-Ray and video download on January 24th, 2012 with bonus performances and interviews. The film documents the making of the band’s landmark 1991 album Achtung Baby.

Early in 2011, the band returned to Hansa Studio in Berlin to discuss the making of Achtung Baby with Academy Award winning director Davis Guggenheim (It Might Get Loud, Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth).

Originally screened as part of BBC’s Imagine Series across the UK last October, the film was also the first ever documentary to open the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival.

Twenty Years after the release of U2′s Achtung Baby, Guggenheim charts the path toward this groundbreaking album. Guggenheim uses animation and unseen footage from Berlin and Dublin alongside conversation to reveal what is now a key chapter in U2′s career.

“In the terrain of rock bands – implosion or explosion is seemingly inevitable. U2 has defied the gravitational pull towards destruction…this band has endured and thrived. From The Sky Down asks the question why,” says Guggenheim.

The trailer for From The Sky Down can be seen here: http://youtu.be/TQ0Zhqb8Qgw

Pre-order From The Sky Down on DVD or Blu-Ray

Twenty years ago, Bono described Achtung Baby as “the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree” while Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that “stripped-down and defying its old formulas, U2 has given itself a fighting chance for the 1990′s.” The album won a Grammy® Award for Best Rock Performance and became one of the most significant records of the nineties and of U2’s career.

To mark twenty years since its 1991 release, an anniversary edition of U2’s Achtung Baby is due on November 1, 2011, in the United States (internationally, October 31, 2011).

Recorded over six months at Hansa Studio in Berlin and Windmill Lane in Dublin, Achtung Baby is U2’s seventh studio album. Produced by longtime U2 collaborators, Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno with Steve Lillywhite, Achtung Baby was engineered by Flood and led by “The Fly.” The album spawned four other singles: “Mysterious Ways,” “One,” “Even Better Than The Real Thing” and “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.”

The Achtung Baby archives have unearthed some previously unreleased songs from the recording sessions. With a raft of unreleased material, video, remixes, b-sides and documentary footage discovered, a full album of demo and early versions of the final 1991 tracklisting has also been revealed. Five physical editions including vinyl, CD, DVD and digital options will be made available. Full details of all formats are at achtungbaby.u2.com.

Earlier this year U2 returned to Hansa Studio in Berlin to discuss Achtung Baby in From The Sky Down, directed by Academy Award®-winning director Davis Guggenheim (Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth). The film has been selected to open the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8 and will be included in the anniversary edition. A trailer for the film can be see here: http://youtu.be/mKDbHa7PANA

www.u2.com