• News

• All

Jul 07, 2020 By Samantha Small Wye Oak

Wye Oak (Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack) have announced a new EP in collaboration with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, No Horizon, and shared its opening track, “AEIO,” via a lyric video. The collection drops July 31 via Merge. Check out “AEIO” below, followed by the EP’s tracklist and cover art.

“AEIO” is the perfect opening song. A bright and invigorating track with dreamy vocals and harmonies, towering drums, and resonant guitar—imagine something you might find in The Lion King or Tarzan, and I mean that in the most praising way possible.

In a press release Wasner had this to say about the new tune: “This song is about the inadequacy of language. It was written around the time that those currently in power took it upon themselves to think that they could minimize the existence of certain people by removing the words that we currently use to define them—like transgender—from use. Language is bigger than the powers that try to control it, but we are so much bigger than language. We are so much more than anything that can be suggested with words.”

According to a press release, No Horizon is a project “plumbing the depths of an ‘evolve or die’ ethos. But, the real through line is technology and the paradox of feeling both included and excluded; disconnected and connected. And while the tracks are distinctly Wye Oak, they find the pair at a stage unlike anything we’ve ever seen before with more unpredictable, but exciting, arrangements. This might have something to do with the expansion of their band to now include five touring members.”

“There’s this sense of communion of making music with other people in real time and space, and that’s something that had eluded us on multiple levels,” Stack explains in the press release. “One was purely geographical, where we were living so far from each other, but also, through this style of performance that we leaned into in the last five years, we really got into this sort of electronic apparatus running different synths and drum machines and electronics. All of that was a way for us to maximize our fire power, maximize the output with a limited palette.”

Aside from “AEIO,” the duo recently shared the standalone singles “Walk Soft” (which made our Songs of the Week list) and “Fortune” (which was #1 on that week’s Songs of the Week list). Back in January, they also shared “Fear of Heights,” another #1 on that week’s Songs of the Week list. None of those songs feature on No Horizon. They also recently shared, JOIN, a new mini documentary highlighting the history of the band.

Wye Oak released their last album, The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs, back in April 2018 via Merge. (It was our Album of the Week and one of our Top 100 Albums of 2018.) In February 2019 they shared a brand new song, “Evergreen,” via the Adult Swim Singles series (it was one of our Songs of the Week).

Since their last album, Stack launched his solo project, Joyero, releasing his debut album as Joyero, Release the Dogs, in August 2019 via Merge. Wasner, meanwhile, has been touring as part of Bon Iver’s band.

In June Wasner surprise-released Like So Much Desire, a new EP with her Flock of Dimes solo project. It was her first release for Sub Pop and the title track made our Songs of the Week list.

Read our 2018 interview with Wye Oak on The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs.

Pick up our last print issue (the My Favorite Album Issue) to read Andy Stack’s essay about his all-time favorite album.

No Horizon Tracklist:

1. AEIOU
2. No Place
3. Spitting Image
4. (cloud)
5. Sky Witness

Support Under the Radar on Patreon.