Wrekmeister Harmonies - Light Falls

Wrekmeister Harmonies announce new album & tour, share "Some Were Saved Some Drowned"

The prolific Chicago experimental metal outfit Wrekmeister Harmonies are prepping to release a new album, as J.R. Robinson and company’s follow-up to last year’s Night of Your Ascension is set to drop on September 16 via Thrill Jockey. It’s called Light Falls and it seems as if it will be a bit of a departure for J.R., who has previously worked with huge groups of outside musicians in order to achieve his huge art-metal compositions. Now he’s changing up both the format (instead of one or two extra-long songs, the new album features seven shorter tracks) and his working method. He’s pared it down to a much shorter list of collaborators that includes Ryley Walker, Cooper Crain (Cave, Bitchin Bajas) and members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They’ve shared the first single, “Some Were Saved Some Drowned,” which you can listen to here:

The new song is, correspondingly to these changes, a pretty big sonic departure from their previous music. It launches in quickly with a driving, chaotic, raw-sounding doom riff and never really lets up. While earlier Wrekmeister Harmonies work played deftly with tension and release, this song is pretty much all release. All that said, it will be very interesting to see how this plays within the context of the album. But for a man who releases so much music, this is definitely a good curveball, a way to keep people on their toes and interested.

Meanwhile, Wrekmeister Harmonies have announced a short run of tour dates behind the new album. Live, JR will be joined by Esther Shaw and Godspeed’s Sophie Trudeau and Timothy Herzog. They play four shows in November including one in NYC at Trans Pecos on November 4 with fellow heavy-music boundary-pushers Kayo Dot. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

Wrekmeister Harmonies — 2016 Tour Dates
November 1 Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
November 2 Chicago, IL @ Township
November 4 New York, NY @ Trans-Pecos
November 5 Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB