Legendary Belfast, Ireland based instrumental outfit And So I Watch You From Afar has shared an ambitious new multimedia album Jettison. The latest offering from the group will is available on Equal Vision Records in partnership with Velocity Records. Through 40 minutes of sonic exploration spread across nine distinct parts and a visual accompaniment by artist Sam Wiehl, Jettison traverses the various shades of ASIWYFA’s euphoric instrumental output. The Arco String Quartet adds moments of ethereal elegance, juxtaposed against cryptic dialogue by Emma Ruth Rundle and Neil Fallon throughout the album, which is available to stream and purchase here.
Intricate guitar work, angular percussion and nuanced spoken word parts defined the sonic arsenal of the new albums focus tracks. “I Dive Pt1” & “II Dive Pt2”, “III Lung” and “IV In Air” all set the stage for the ambitions of the full album. Each song built upon it’s composition to become an ethereal and beautiful soundscape – awash with twinkling guitars and a crescendoing waves of drum and bass.
On the scope of their latest album, the band had this to say:
“The initial motivation behind Jettison was simple. Making a longer piece of music was something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. We always liked albums and pieces of music that gave you a bigger space to get lost in.”
The group had this to add about the collaborative partnership with visual artist Sam Wiehl:
“We loved the idea of reverse engineering a film score, flipping it on its head and having Sam (Wiehl) create the visual narrative to the music. We hoped the new project would ultimately serve as a counterweight to the tense social climate—a way to ‘jettison’ the anger and strife of the times.”
The band will embark on a headlining tour supporting Jettison across Europe and the UK early next year, a full itinerary is available below. You can order the album here.
Jettison Tracklist:
1. I Dive Pt 1
2. II Dive Pt 2
3. III Lung
4. IV In Air
5. V Hold
6. VI Submerge
7. VII Emerge
8. VIII Jettison
9. IX A.D. Poet
About ASIWYFA
Ireland’s instrumental rock quartet And So I Watch You From Afar has defied the layman’s definition of post-rock by absorbing new ideas and pushing the boundaries of their intricate and ecstatic guitar-based compositions. Crashing out of the gate with the big-riff worship and arena-level melodic heroics of their eponymous debut, ASIWYFA have continuously introduced new spins on their original sound while simultaneously expanding their sonic palette with every new album, taking in and repurposing everything from African highlife to Irish trad to the weirdo math-rock of the late ‘90s / early ‘00s. Their upcoming multi-media piece Jettison was conceived by And So I Watch You From Afar’s guitarist Rory Friers and brought to life by the band, orchestrator Connor O’Boyle, the Arco String Quartet, and visual artist Sam Wiehl. Jettison is a fusion of ASIWYFA’s life-affirming musical acrobatics, the sweeping grandeur of film scores, and the surreal and sublime capabilities of moving pictures
Jettison is by no means a normal ASIWYFA album. Rather, it is a very deliberate departure as opposed to an evolutionary step to increasingly ambitious, complex, and conceptual work. The full Jettison experience, replete with Wiehl’s visuals and the string accompaniments, will only happen occasionally, such as the full-house October 2021 performance at The Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre. Yet even in the album format, Jettison is a special experience, one that transports the listener away from the tumultuous times and into a blissful musical utopia. Equal Vision Records is proud to present this document of the aural component of Jettison to the world on CD, LP, and digital platforms on February 18, 2022.