Four-CD collection of Bob Dylan songs for Amnesty released in UK on 6 February

A four-CD compilation of Bob Dylan cover songs is being released in the UK on 6 February.

The release, on the Universal Record label and on iTunes, is called Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, and is released as of part of Amnesty International’s 50th Birthday celebrations.

The four-disc collection contains 76 newly-recorded Dylan songs by more than 80 artists, Adele, My Chemical Romance, Michael Franti, Elvis Costello, Sinead O’Connor,  Queens Of The Stone Age, Bad Religion, Patti Smith, Billy Bragg, My Morning Jacket and Ke$ha, amongst others.

Chimes of Freedom features many of Amnesty’s long-time supporters and a huge range of ages, from teenage pop star Miley Cyrus, 19, to 92-year-old folk music legend Pete Seeger. Seeger has recorded Dylan’s poignant “Forever young” with a Children's rights’s chorus. Almost every track on the album is being released for the first time, with 70 songs recorded especially for Chimes of Freedom.

All of the artists, session musicians, arrangers, engineers, producers and recording studios worked pro bono on the project.

Helen Garrett, director of special projects for Amnesty International, said:

"Chimes of Freedom is an abundance of riches.

“It's fair to say that the collection shows how deeply musicians feel about the beauty of Dylan's music - across generations - and how passionate they are about supporting human rights.

We hope all of their fans will be inspired, too, and engage with millions of activists around the globe to protect the rights of people everywhere."

Amnesty has seen tremendous and generous international support from a wide variety of music retailers including Amazon, Google Music, iTunes, Spotify, Starbucks and many more.

Music executives Jeff Ayeroff and Julie Yannatta are the executive producers of Chimes of Freedom, the same role they fulfilled on Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur, the 2007 collection of John Lennon solo compositions performed by major artists including U2, Green Day and R.E.M.

Chimes of Freedom is dedicated to the thousands of people worldwide who are imprisoned or threatened for the peaceful expression of their beliefs.