Patrick Higgins and Nicolas Jaar have a new duo, and it’s called AEAEA. Their debut album, Mist, arrives this fall, and the first single, “Sunrise On Lethe,” is streaming now.
The 13-minute instrumental track is loose and heady. It sounds like fumbling through fog, which is the point. The album was recorded over three years, with sessions in Berlin and at Higgins’ studio in Upstate New York.
A Name You Have to Say Out Loud
AEAEA is a strange name. Do you say every letter, or do you make a ululating noise? Saying the letters out loud involves making that noise anyway, so the question may answer itself.
It is the kind of name that gets used to over time, like singing the “Old McDonald” chorus. Nobody has to try it right now, but the band has committed to it.
Two Paths Into One Project
AEAEA brings together two figures from different corners of experimental music. Nicolas Jaar is the expansive producer known for his hypnotic solo work and as a member of Darkside, who released the album Nothing last year.
Patrick Higgins is an experimental New York composer and guitarist who has done production work on big indie rock records. His album Dossier came out in 2018 on Jaar’s label, Other People.
The two first started making music together in 2019. That year, Higgins was artist and curator at the festival Le Guess Who?, and the collaboration grew from there.
Mist, Recorded Over Three Years
Jaar and Higgins recorded Mist over three years, working in Berlin and at Higgins’ studio in Upstate New York. The pair brought in cellist Judith Hamann to fill out their arrangements.
The result is an album that rewards attention. It sits somewhere in that mist the title promises.
The First Single
“Sunrise On Lethe” is the lead single. It is a loose, heady instrumental that really does sound like fumbling your way through some mist.
“Sunrise On Lethe” is a loose, heady 13-minute instrumental that really does sound like fumbling your way through some mist.
The track sets the tone for what follows.
Reading the Tracklist
The album has eight tracks, and the titles carry a literary and classical weight. The full tracklist is:
01 “Khôra”
02 “Respire”
03 “Desert Solitaire”
04 “Lost Lands”
05 “Asunder”
06 “Threnody”
07 “Sunrise On Lethe”
08 “Coda”
The closing track is called “Coda,” which fits an album that feels like a long, winding sentence finally reaching its period.
Release Date and Live Debut
Mist is out 11/20 on Other People. Other People is Jaar’s label, and it released Higgins’ Dossier in 2018.
AEAEA will give their first US live performance at the Other People label night on 9/25 at Brooklyn’s 314 Scholes. The source does not say whether the duo has performed live elsewhere before that date.
A Long Gestation
The album arrives in November, and the live debut comes before that. It is a busy stretch for a project that has been three years in the making.
For fans of Jaar’s solo work or Darkside, this is a new direction. For fans of Higgins’ production, it is a chance to hear him in a more exposed setting.
The single is out now, and the full album follows this fall. The Brooklyn show on 9/25 will be AEAEA’s first US live performance, and it comes before the record is even out.
Source: stereogum.com
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