New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, Yeasayer co-founder Anand Wilder releases new single "Appointment in Samarra" via Last Gang Records / MNRK
Music Group, his first solo release since a 2023 ambient album and the followup to his 2022 solo debut I Don't Know My Words. Opening with the sounds of a harmonium and a flute, the track uses an inevitable confrontation with death as a metaphor for music industry dynamics - "hanging on for dear life" amidst the trials and tribulations of being an artist in today's landscape. The song also arrives with a kaleidoscopic music video directed by Jordan Fish (MGMT, Chairlift) that was featured at BrooklynVegan who called it "as hallucinatory as the song itself."
Next month, Wilder will play two shows at Brooklyn's Sultan Room Rooftop with Delicate Steve on June 25 and June 26. For more information, please visit anandwilder.com.
Wilder on the new single: "This song started out as a harmonium and flute call and response jam with Walter Fancourt, and then I added Scotch tape and clinking glass sounds for the beat. Lyrics came from a series of text messages with my other producer, Jachary, who also laid down bass and Juno Synths. Kaleidoscopic delayed out baritone sax and ngoni by Walter on the double breakdown section. Title from ancient Mesopotamian tale recited by
Boris Karloff as Byron Orlok in the
Peter Bogdanovich film, Targets."
On his 2022 solo debut I Don't Know My Words, Wilder took the spiritual exercise of going solo seriously. Stripping his songcraft down to the studs, he recorded every note himself. The hard work paid off, earning praise from Stereogum, NPR Music, Consequence and many more. Since then, he released the 2023 ambient album Cannibalizing The Conductor and two tracks with Maia Friedman celebrating Last Gang Records 20th anniversary. He's also kept busy touring throughout the US and performing DJ sets at the Crown Heights bar King Tai.
With "Samarra", Wilder returns to the collaboration and the art rock experimentation he made his name with as a member of Yeasayer. He collaborated with Walter Fancourt, a guest saxophonist on Yeasayer's Amen & Goodbye to help write and record, as well as lauded multi-instrumentalist Jachary to co-produce. The new track features a soundscape that's reminiscent of the lush synthetic palettes of the 1980s. Similar to Yeasayer's music, a mix of synths, strings and harmonies bring to mind the psychedelic worldbeat and electro-pop of the critically-acclaimed Brooklyn band.
2025 Tour Dates:
June 25/26 - Brooklyn, NY - The Sultan Room Rooftop (with Delicate Steve)
