Damien Teo

What’s New, Tomboy? is an album that seeks respite in bare minimums and barren revelations: sometimes frail, sometimes affirming, sometimes wry, and usually a threadbare mix of all those sentiments. It could be considered Damien Jurado’s finest collection of music to date, with songs exuding the inviting warmth of a lone porch light gleaming amidst the disorienting darkness. Though more stripped and grounded in their execution, songs like Sandra, Ochoa and Alice Hyatt are generous and candid in their vocabulary, eschewing the sometimes abstruse imagery of Jurado’s previous releases. “There is no hiding on these tracks.” Though What’s New, Tomboy? is the first Damien Jurado record that ends with a question mark, he has never sounded more assured and content in giving up his ghosts: “I’m only living sentences // That were long before I got here.”

Reggae Film Star is Damien Jurado’s 18th full length studio album and the second on his own record label Maraqopa Records. 25 years since his debut album Waters Ave S. came out, Jurado is more prolific, driven and creative than ever. The twelve mystical songs on Reggae Film Star are gorgeously cinematic and feature rich production and diverse sonic textures. Reggae Film Star was produced by Damien Jurado at Sonikwire in Irvine, CA, with invaluable help from the dream team of multi instrumentalist Josh Gordon and recording engineer Alex Bush. The album was mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound.

On November 1st, 2023, Jurado released his 21st studio album, Passing the Giraffes, on Maraqopa Records. The release is Jurado's third studio album of 2023.

In the post-Renaissance period, the lamento established a place for itself in both vocal and instrumental music. This grief-stricken utterance in the face of death – one’s own imminent demise, that of a loved one, a lamentation that may be either sacred or secular – conveys a sentiment of melancholy that verges on the inexpressible…