Beacon have shared two new singles ‘Ostrich’ and ‘Can’t Turn Back’ to announce details of their fourth album, ‘Along The Lethe’.
The piano-led ‘Ostrich’ is a collaboration with Colin Stetson adding horns and woodwinds to the track and was inspired by a tuning technique used by Lou Reed and John Cale in The Velvet Underground – requiring all strings on an instrument to be tuned to the same note, before the US duo of Thomas Mullarney and Jacob Gossett improvised on the various synths and instruments over the top.
“Colin delivered his performance a day before Christmas Eve in 2021, and with it being the first demo written for the record in late 2019,” said Thomas. “‘Ostrich’ is both the oldest song on the record and the last to be finished.”
Stetson added: “What a joy to spin and whirl and call out into the ether with these lovely Beacon folks. Many thanks for having me on.”
‘Can’t Turn Back’ meanwhile, showcases Gossett’s love for UK garage rhythms and synth arpeggios to create the song’s “haunted” feeling, the band explained.
“I was haunted by this feeling of history intruding on our reality as lockdown descended on NYC,” said singer and producer Mullarney. “I was reading a book called The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth about the apocalyptic aftermath of the Norman Invasion of England in 1066, written in a ‘shadow tongue’ combining old and modern english. This uncanniness followed me through the pandemic.”
During lockdown, the duo took to writing their fourth full-length record and the follow-up to 2018’s ‘Gravity Pairs’. As well as being the Greek word for ‘oblivion’, The Lethe is one of the five rivers of the underworld in Greek mythology. The band exlained how the record dealt with “the allure of forgetting tragedy”.
“I see ‘Along The Lethe’ as Jacob and I preserving an extraordinary moment of our lives,” Thomas added. “It contains the most difficult and exalted experiences we’ve had creating music together. Writing it down makes it impossible to forget.”
‘Along The Lethe’ will be released on September 9 via Apparent Movement. Check out the full album tracklist below.
1. ‘Until Next Time’
2. ‘Oranges’
3. ‘Pay My Debts’
4. ‘I’m The Answer’
5. ‘Can’t Turn Back’
6. ‘Ostrich’ (feat. Colin Stetson)
7. ‘Nova’
8. ‘Show Me How’
9. ‘Harm’
10. ‘Mile A Minute’ (feat. Matthew Dear)
Beacon’s upcoming tour dates are below. Visit here for tickets and more information.
SEPTEMBER
10 – Brooklyn, NY – Public Records
13 – Boston, MA – Middle East
25 – Chicago IL – Schubas
OCTOBER
6 – Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz?
15 – Portland, OR – Holocene
23 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
NOVEMBER
15 – Haarlem, Netherlands – Patronaat
17 – Budapest, Hungary – Turbina
18 – Glasgow, UK – The Hug & Pint
19 – Manchester, UK – YES
20 – London, UK – Nells
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