Billow Observatory, the collaboration of Jonas Munk of Denmark and guitarist Jason Kolb, will release a new album in April.
The project, launched in 2012, was initially planned as a small side-project from the trans-Atlantic duo’s main work in Manual and Auburn Lull respectively, but it became apparent that their collaborative experiments merited more time and attention. They released Billow Observatory, their debut album, on Los Angeles label Felte, and they’ve since released two more, the latest, III: Chroma/Contour, coming in 2019.
Marking 10 years since Billow Observatory, Stareside is the duo’s most “forcefully elegant” undertaking to date, we’re told.
A record of “swaying quarantine temperament,” Stareside‘s nine tracks thread the needle between hope and hopelessness—”daydreaming whilst watching the world go mad in the blink of an eye,” we understand. Not shy of overt rhythm, soaring motifs, and daunting undercurrents, the album veers wildly in new directions, yet keeps one hand near the record bin of “comforting nostalgia.” We’re told to expect something along the lines of early Warp, Jon Hassel, and Conny Plank.
The album includes three previously released singles.
“Wash Away The Dust” came out in the middle of 2020, which led to more work on a fully formed album. 2021 saw “Red Morning” shared with an ethereal video directed, shot, and edited by Joseph Querio. This month, another video from Querio for “Sink The Outlook” dropped.
Tracklisting
01. Inner Citadel
02. Sink The Outlook
03. Vantage Low
04. Wash Away The Dust
05. Osar
06. Havel
07. Stareside
08. Red Morning
09. In A Stream
Stareside LP is scheduled for April 8 release. Meanwhile, you can stream “Sink The Outlook,” “Wash Away The Dust,” and “Red Morning” in full below and pre-order here.
