The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner are set to release a new album as part of the band Complete Mountain Almanac, the brothers have announced.
The pair join their sister Jessica Dessner and composer Rebekka Karijord in the new group, who shared their first track late last year.
- READ MORE: The National on new music: “It’s the whole history of the band, but with a new exploration”
Complete Mountain Almanac will release their self-titled debut album on January 27, via Bella Union. The record will feature 12 songs, with each one named after a month of the year. ‘May’ arrived last October, while the album announcement is accompanied by the release of ‘February’.
Shortly after work on the album started, Jessica was diagnosed with breast cancer – an experience that fed into ‘February’. “‘February’ is a song that began as a reckoning with the profound physical changes wrought by breast cancer and how they threaten to dismantle every aspect of life, and yet, somehow the spirit rises, remains constant, immutable, a force, like nature,” she said in a press release.
Karijord added: “To me, ‘February’ is like an ancient myth. A road trip dance, moving between vulnerability and resilience. It journeys through layers of odd meters, restlessness and mystery, and then lands in a musical landscape of acceptance and clarity.”
‘Complete Mountain Almanac’ is described as “cycl[ing] through folk, classical, chamber music and everything in between, creating a cocoon-like atmosphere that draws the listener into a stand-alone universe”. You can pre-order the record here now.
In October, Aaron Dessner and Taylor Swift made a surprise appearance at Bon Iver’s London concert to perform Swift’s song ‘Exile’. The track appeared on the singer’s album ‘Folklore’ and featured Dessner and Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon.
Meanwhile, Aaron has also recently worked with the likes of girl in red on her single ‘October Passed Me By’, Gracie Abrams and Ed Sheeran. The latter shared last year that he had written 25 songs with the musician and producer during an appearance in court in relation to a copyright claim over his hit single ‘Shape Of You’.
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