Following the release of his Choice Music Prize-nominated album, In The Game, in 2021, Mick Flannery is set to return with a new 12-track album, Night at the Opera – and a companion NFT – out on February 22.

The album, which will be initially released only on Bandcamp, is made up of 12 short songs, each telling the story of a famous chess game. Each song has corresponding chords to each move on the board.

Mick worked on the companion NFT with his sister, Sarah Barthelet, and her husband, Luc Barthelet. NFTs (or non-fungible token) are – according to investopedia.com – "unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and cannot be replicated," which "can be used to represent real-world items like artwork and real-estate." Since 2021, they've been taking the music world by storm – with Kings of Leon becoming the first band to sell a newly-released album as an NFT, with When You See Yourself, in March.

There will be a more detailed discussion of the NFT in a Discord group dedicated to this project – which can be joined here.

“A lockdown-induced chess-obsession was the inspiration for these songs," Mick comments. "A chess piece e.g. knight, pawn... is given a corresponding musical chord, and thus the song structure follows the moves of a chosen (mostly famous) chess game. The lyrics of the songs deal primarily with the often-complex lives of the grandmasters. The audio will be widely available. The NFT idea is connected to videos where people (chess-nerds) can watch the chess game play out in time and harmony with the chords of the song. There'll be 2D and 3D versions of these and they'll be sold as digital tokens with 20% of all profits going to effective altruism."

Effective altruism is "a philosophy and social movement that advocates using evidence and reason to determine the ways we can help others the most" – as defined by Effective Altruism Ireland.

The first track to be released from the project, ‘King of Hate’, is based on the life and death of Alexander Alekhine – "with chords married to the game Alekhine vs Rodzynski in Paris in 1913."

Listen to 'King Of Hate' – and pre-order Night at the Opera – on Bandcamp now:

Take a look at the full list of songs – and their corresponding chess games – below:

1. Night at the Opera – Paul Morphy vs Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard – Paris, 1858
2. Take Your Beating Well – Adolf Anderssen vs Jean Dufresne, "The Evergreen Game” – Berlin, 1852
3. Pride And Sorrow – Paul Morphy vs Unknown amateur, Morphy begins a rook down – New Orleans, 1858
4. Rashid And Firebird – Rashid Nezhmetdinov vs Samsonov (Rashid’s mentor) – Kazan, 1929
5. I’ll Learn To See – Judit Polgar (12yrs) vs Pavlina Chilingirova – Thessaloniki, 1988
6. Planet Ivanchuk – Vassily Ivanchuk vs Sergey Karjakin, Song ends at Vassily’s queen sacrifice – Nice, 2008
7. Misha Misha – Mikhail Tal vs ​​Mikhail Botvinnik, Song ends at Tal’s famous Knight sacrifice – Moscow 1960
8. Western Hero – Bobby Fischer (13yrs) vs Donald Byrne, Game Of The Century – New York City, 1956
9. Big Bang – Albert Einstein vs Robert Oppenheimer. Song ends as Oppenheimer resigns – Princeton, 1933 (allegedly)
10. King Of Hate – Alexander Alekhine vs Rodzynski, The Wayward Queen – Paris, 1913
11. I Do Not Run – Gary Kasparov vs Guy West. Song ends as West resigns – Via Telex 1977
12. Funny Things – Awonder Liang vs Gunay. Mammadzada – Polgar Challenge (2021), Online