While preparing for the September 15 Internet launch of his "Sly-Fi" project, former Eurythmic and Spiritual Cowboy Dave Stewart finds himself up to his ears in various projects -- including scoring Robert Altman's new film, readying to make his own big-screen directorial debut, and writing and recording songs with Bryan Ferry and Natalie Imbruglia.

Working with a music legend such as Ferry, the ex-Roxy Music frontman, is nothing new for Stewart, who has recorded and toured with the likes of Tom Petty, Bootsy Collins and Bob Dylan. According to Stewart, however, his collaboration with current pop sensation Imbruglia came about by chance, after the singer happened to hear one of Stewart's demos while she was cruising in a car in Germany.

[Natalie] was actually driving around Germany," Stewart said, "with a German record company guy, and he was playing a tape of mine that nobody really had, which had some really strange music I had made because he was a fan of mine. And she

heard it and started asking about who it was. So he gave her one of my solo albums and he gave her this tape.

Not long after that," he continued, "I was in a restaurant and she sat next to me. She was at the other table and went, 'Oh wow! I heard this tape ... blah blah blah.' Anyway, we ended up back at my apartment, which was just round the corner from the restaurant. I was playing acoustic guitar and she was singing and it sounded really great. Natalie and I have written about six songs, and I'll probably finish them in the studio when we both have time.

Imbruglia is just one of the music celebrities who turn up on Stewart's "Sly-Fi" program (see [article id="1428693"]"Dave Stewart Signs Multi-Media Deal For Record, Online Show"[/article]), which will also feature cameos from Sinead O'Connor, Lou Reed, Jon Bon Jovi, the Edge and Bob Dylan, as well as from such non-music personas as Timothy O'Leary, Gina Gershon, Demi Moore, Kevin Spacey and Isabella

Rossellini.

No word yet on when or where those Stewart-Imbruglia songs might surface, but we'll keep you posted.