It's not the first time writers and musos have teamed up, although this pairing promises not to be as gimmicky or avante-garde as some past team-ups.

In honour of the release of the Folds-Hornby project, here are five collaborations between authors and musicians (including the Folds-Hornby one because it seems pretty cool).

The Priest They Called Him - Kurt Cobain & William S Burroughs

WRITER William S Burroughs was as controversial as he was influential. Best known for the novel Naked Lunch, he was part of the Beat movement, helping bring America's underground culture to the fore by writing such stories as such as Queer and Junkie (he proudly declared himself to be both). His "cut-up" technique of writing was used by the likes of David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Thom Yorke (to name just a few), and late in his life Burroughs worked with bands, recording a spoken word album with musical backing by the likes of Sonic Youth and John Cale. He also collaborated with Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy and Tom Waits, and starred in film clips for Ministry and U2. Nirvana fans particularly prized his pairing with Kurt Cobain, which features Cobain making guitar feedback for nine minutes as Burroughs reads a short story about a junkie known as The Priest, who sells a suitcase full of severed legs in order to buy a hit but gives the drugs to a junkie who needs them more than he. In the pre-internet days, The Priest They Called Him was a hard-to-find curiousity. Far from being the great "lost Nirvana song" some hoped it would be, it nonetheless helped turn a legion of Nirvana fans on to the works of Burroughs.

The Ground Beneath Her Feet - U2 & Salman Rushdie

BRITISH writer Salman Rushdie sparked controversy in 1988 with the release of The Satanic Verses, a book declared blasphemous by some extremist Muslim leaders. Despite a fatwa being placed on him, Rushdie was still something of a public figure and even appeared on stage with his friend Bono's band U2. Their friendship also led to Rushdie sending a copy of the manuscript to his 2000 novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet to Bono. A reworking of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, the book contained the lyrics to the then-fictitious song of the title, which Bono asked if he could use to create an actual song. Rushdie agreed and even appeared in the film clip. While intended for their album All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), the song ended up being used on the soundtrack to Wim Wenders' much-maligned movie The Million Dollar Hotel, which featured music by U2, Brian Eno, Bill Frisell, Daniel Lanois, Lou Reed and Milla Jovovich. Bono came up with the concept for the film too, which Mel Gibson, who starred and produced, famously described as being "as boring as a dog's arse".

Ballad Of The Skeletons - Paul McCartney, Phillip Glass & Allen Ginsberg

ANOTHER Beat poet, Allen Ginsberg rocked conservative morals in the '50s with his explosive poem Howl and he was still raging against the machine up until his death in 1997. Along the way, he made friends with Bob Dylan and The Beatles and collaborated on music with the likes of The Clash and U2, but perhaps his best known musical moment came just six months before he died. Ballad Of The Skeletons was a seven-minute-long black-humoured diatribe that slashed its way through modern society, global politics and social stagnation with a keen eye, a razor wit and a sharp mind. The musical backing, provided by Paul McCartney, Phillip Glass and Lenny Kaye, gave Ginsberg's rant about 66 skeletons a circular chord progression that actually made it catchy despite lacking a chorus, while Ginsberg's delivery makes it poignant beyond its gimmicky potential. Triple J listeners voted it to number eight in their countdown of the Hottest 100 songs of 1997 - a small but sweet tribute to the late, great writer.

Lonely Avenue - Ben Folds & Nick Hornby

ON paper it seems like a perfect pairing, and on the basis of the songs leaked and performed live so far, it's a pretty good match. UK writer Nick Hornby has proven to have a gifted way around words in books such as High Fidelity, Long Way Down and About A Boy, while US singer-songwriter Ben Folds is as highly regarded for his lyrics as he is his piano-playing and melodic prowess. Both had something of a mutual appreciation society prior to meeting - Folds was reading Hornby's books while touring the UK with Ben Folds Five, while Hornby had talked up their track Smoke in his book 31 Songs, describing it as "one of the cleverest, wisest songs about the slow death of a relationship that I know... Smoke is... lyrically perfect, clever and sad and neat". A friendship between the two developed and eventually they agreed to do an album, with Hornby sending Folds lyrics and Folds turning them into songs. The result - Lonely Avenue - wanders from the bitter-sweet omnipotent observations of From Above, to quiet tragedy of Picture Window, to quirky cheesy-ness of Saskia Hamilton and Levi Johnston's Blues.

Unearthing - Crook&Flail & Alan Moore

IN the world of graphic novels, Alan Moore is a god. His works include gamechangers such Watchmen, V For Vendetta, From Hell, influential Batman tale The Killing Joke and Top Ten, and he has developed a fierce reputation as an innovator and literary legend in a field not regarded as being innovative or literary. His latest project, Unearthing, is a pseudo-biography audio book about Moore's friend Steven Moore, accompanied by a photo album and a musical soundtrack that features a cast of underground musicians. The main brains behind the music are Andrew Broder (Fog) and Adam Drucker (Doseone) under the name Crook&Flail, but guests include Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), Zach Hill (Hella), Mike Patton (Faith No More, Tomahawk, Fantomas) and Justin Broadrick (Napalm Death, Godflesh). It's not Moore's first foray into music - he played in "a number of local bands", as he puts it, and his magnum opus Watchmen is replete with musical references. While not for everyone, Unearthing continues Moore's reputation for daring to do something different.