Circles Around The Sun have officially announced an upcoming double album, Let It Wander, due out August 17 via Rhino. The new music marks the first release since the band’s acclaimed 2015 debut record, Interludes For The Dead, which was composed especially for the set break music at the Grateful Dead’s “Fare Thee Well” concerts in 2015.
Today, the band released the first of seven tracks, “Immovable Object”, which you can listen to below.
Guitarist Neal Casal and keyboardist Adam MacDougall (bandmates in the Chris Robinson Brotherhood) along with bassist Dan Horne and drummer Mark Levy recorded the new instrumentals at Castaway 7 Studios in California. Stepping away from the Interludes For The Dead character, Circles Around The Sun’s new album embraces their own personality as a band while maintaining the distinct, groovy sound of their inspired debut album.
“More than anything, what you hear on this album is a band growing into its own sound,” Casal said in a press release.
The songs on Let It Wander are focused and filled with imaginative musical turns. Horne and Levy form a veritable groove machine that knows intuitively when to tighten up and when to stretch out. They expand and collapse the rhythmic pocket around Casal and MacDougall, who pass melodies back and forth in an elaborate game of musical tag as they take turns adding color and shade from a seemingly endless kaleidoscope of cosmic sounds.
According to the press release, one of the tracks features a surprise cameo by Chuck D. The charismatic leader of legendary hip-hop pioneers Public Enemy happened to stop by the studio while the band was listening to a song they’d just recorded. He raved to the band how much he loved the music, so they asked him to record an intro. He obliged, and they dedicated “One For Chuck” song to him.
LET IT WANDER // Track Listing
1. “On My Mind”
2. “One For Chuck”
3. “Immovable Object”
4. “Halicarnassus”
5. “Tacoma Narrows”
6. “Electric Chair (Don’t Sit There)”
7. “Ticket To Helix NGC 7293”