ONE of the world’s most acclaimed songwriters has announced plans to release his first album since the tragic death of his 15-year-old son.

Nick Cave will release Skeleton Tree, his 16th album with his band the Bad Seeds, in September.

It will be the first new material from the award-winning Australian musician since the tragic death of his son Arthur who died following a cliff fall at Ovingdean.

Much of the album was recorded at a local studio just a few hundred metres from where his son died and recorded just months before the tragic accident.

Fans are being prepared to expect a "stark, fragile and raw" sound to the new studio album, which will be released on September 9.

A feature film One More Time With Feeling will be in cinemas on the day before the album hits the shops.

A statement from the band has revealed the film evolved from a “performance-based concept” into something more significant as director Andrew Dominik began to delve into the “tragic backdrop” of the writing and recording of the album.

The film will feature footage of the band performing material for the new album, the first time fans will be able to hear new tracks, as well as interviews and footage of the recording process accompanied by Cave's “intermittent narration and improvised rumination”.

The film, which is in both black-and-white and colour and 3D and 2D, will be screened at the Duke of York’s cinema in Brighton between September 8 and September 11.

Recording of the album began at Retreat Recording Studios in Ovingdean at the end of 2014 with further sessions recorded at a studio on the outskirts of Paris last autumn in the wake of Arthur’s death.

Cave, who lives in Brighton, has used the small Brighton studio for a number of years to record soundtracks for the French film Far From Men, American TV series Black Sails and his own biographical film 20,000 Days on Earth.

Studio engineer Chris Blakey said: “20,000 Days was the first one he recorded with us and he has come back to do a few soundtracks but this is the first album with the band which is exciting.

“I think he looked at a few studio locations in Brighton and I think he just felt this fitted with his and Warren’s [Warren Ellis, fellow Bad Seeds member] way of working very well.

“It’s absolutely great to have them in and I think their use of the studios has helped to encourage other bands to get in touch.

“I think the description they have given of the new material its pretty accurate, I think the album is following along a similar line although their process was slightly different this time which has led to a bit of a different sound.

“They have used another studio but I would like to think the meat of the album was done with us.”

TRAGEDY OF A ‘BEAUTIFUL, HAPPY, LOVING BOY’

The Argus: Arthur Cave, 15, died after falling from the cliffs at Ovingdean

NICK Cave and his wife Susie Bick described their 15-year-old son, Arthur, as their “beautiful, happy, loving boy” after he died on July 14.

His inquest heard he was under the influence of LSD when he fell from cliffs and later died.

The 15-year-old, pictured right, was found on Undercliff Walk by passers-by at Ovingdean Gap before being taken to hospital where he died.

Brighton senior coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley recorded Arthur’s death as accidental.  The inquest heard a post mortem examination found he had ingested the hallucinogenic drug, also known as acid.

Friends also paid tribute to the popular teenager with flowers left at the cliffs by school friends from Bede’s in Upper Dicker, where friends said Arthur had just finished Year 10.

Speaking from the cliff in Ovingdean where Arthur fell, his friend Ed Bucknall said: “He was a friend, my best friend. I saw him every day and I can’t believe what’s happened. I was with him in the morning.

“He was one of the nicest guys you could meet, he was so funny and just so much fun. He never said a bad word about anyone.

“He loved skating, we always used to skate together. And now we can’t.

“I’m devastated, I can’t even explain it – I’m just broken. I’ve been distraught ever since I heard. I was with his brother Earl when I heard and I went and saw their dad.

“He was just such a nice guy, you couldn’t have asked for a nicer mate.”