After composition student Ellis Ludwig-Leone graduated from Yale in 2011, instead of giving in to post-college feelings of aimlessness and "what next?" confusion, he set about to work on the epic master statement that he dubbed San Fermin. The self-titled debut is a massive collection of densely layered orchestral pop stuck between the technical tendencies of classically trained musicians and the summery electro-pop curiosity of chamber-leaning indie acts like Dirty Projectors, Grizzly Bear, and Sufjan Stevens. Ludwig-Leone acts in a "man behind the curtain" fashion for San Fermin, conducting more than a dozen musicians and vocalists through his songs and only contributing piano and keyboards himself.
Rostam Batmanglij, formerly of Vampire Weekend, has announced his debut solo album, Half-Light. It’s out September 8 15 via Nonesuch. He also shared a new track from the project called “Bike Dream.” Watch the lyric video, and see the album's full tracklist and cover art, below. It includes the previously-released “Gwan,” “EOS,” “Don’t Let It Get To You,” and “Wood.” Guests on the album include Angel Deradoorian (Dirty Projectors, Avey Tare) and Kelly Zutrau (Wet). Rostam will also tour in support of the album throughout 2017 and 2018. The dates are to be announced.
This double cd pack is more than a simple anthology. It starts with a complete John Cale-overseen remaster of the long out-of-print 1982 album "Music for a new society", along with 3 exclusive new tracks. But the real meat of the work is M:Fans, a complete reworking of the entire original 1982 album, to which the remastered "Music for a new society" serves merely as preface. "John Cale re-contextualises the original songs into radical new forms to resonate with the digital age. Includes a new recording of 'Back To The End' - a previously lost track from the original session."