Owen Pallett has surprise-released a new album titled Island. His first in six years, since 2014’s In Conflict, Pallett wrote the nine songs on acoustic guitar and then worked out orchestrations for them, and recorded with the London Contemporary Orchestra in Studio Two.
Island finds the Montreal-based avant indie pop composer returning to Spectrum, the fictional 14th-century universe in which he set his 2010 concept album Heartland. The record represents a hybrid of two dramatically different approaches. Though known primarily as a violinist, Pallett wrote much of the record on acoustic guitar in anticipation of translating it into an orchestral work. Conceived as a single continuous piece, Island gradually transforms from pastoral folk to a percussive, orchestral crescendo, reflecting the ever-growing momentum within the album. As Pallett say, "We have this record that begins like it could just be a sequel to [Nick Drake's] Pink Moon, and instead it kind of descends into something much more in line with Scott Walker's The Drift."
Lead Single - A Bloody Morning
The lead single is A Bloody Morning which comes with a very striking music video, featuring dancers who range in age from 6 to 72, filmed entirely through windows and doorways with no contact. Pallett says it's "cathartic". Directed by Vincent René-Lortie and choreographed by Brittney Canda.
We were delighted to welcome the project into Studio Two where the session was engineered by Abbey Road senior recording engineer Andrew Dudman and assisted by Paul Pritchard.
The new record is out now on Domino / Secret City Records (Canada) and is available to stream and purchase here.
