Welcome back Bowie!

From the BBC website (there was also a feature about this on the Today programme this morning,and they played an excerpt from the single):

Singer David Bowie has released a new single on his 66th birthday, following years of silence and speculation.

The glam-rock legend has released the recording Where are we now? on iTunes, which will be followed by a new album, entitled The Next Day, in March.

Bowie has not performed live since 2006 and has rarely been seen in public since then.

The new track was recorded in New York and produced by the singer's long-time collaborator Tony Visconti.

 

According to a statement released through his press representatives, "throwing shadows and avoiding the industry treadmill is very David Bowie".

The Space Oddity star, it continued, was "the kind of artist who writes and performs what he wants when he wants".

The track precedes a new fourteen-track album The Next Day which is due to be released in March.

Where are we now? is accompanied by a video directed by multimedia and installation artist Tony Oursler, which harks back to Bowie's time in Berlin.

The promo, which can be viewed via the singer's website, features his face projected onto the body of a puppet.

The face of a woman is projected onto the mannequin beside him, with Bowie appearing in more conventional form later on in the video.

Bowie, who was last reported to be living in New York with his wife and daughter, has not released material since his 2003 album Reality.

In September, the singer denied reports he was involved in an upcoming exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in London charting his career.