How do you think you pronounce the band name "AEAEA"? Do you say every letter, or do you just kind of make a ululating noise? If you say the letters out loud, doesn't that involve making a ululating noise? Do you get used to it, like you're singing the "Old McDonald" chorus? I'm not going to try it, so somebody else will have to let me know. In any case, AEAEA is the name of Patrick Higgins and Nicolas Jaar's new duo, and their debut album Mist comes out this fall.
You probably know the expansive producer Nicolas Jaar for his hypnotic solo work or for being a member of Darkside, who released the great album Nothing last year. Patrick Higgins is an experimental New York composer and guitarist who has done production work on some big indie rock records. His album Dossier came out in Jaar's Other People label in 2018. In 2019, Higgins was artist/curator at the festival Le Guess Who?, and that was when he and Jaar first started making music together.
Jaar and Higgins recorded Mist over three years, working in Berlin and at Higgins' studio in Upstate New York. It has a hazy, improvisational feel, and they brought in cellist Judith Hamann to fill out their arrangements. Lead single "Sunrise On Lethe" is a loose, heady 13-minute instrumental that really does sound like fumbling your way through some mist. Listen below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Khôra"
02 "Respire"
03 "Desert Solitaire"
04 "Lost Lands"
05 "Asunder"
06 "Threnody"
07 "Sunrise On Lethe"
08 "Coda"
Mist is out 11/20 on Other People. AEAEA will give their first US live performance at the Other People label night 9/25 at Brooklyn's 314 Scholes.
