Big Thief drummer James Krivchenia has released three tracks off of his newly announced album, A Newfound Relaxation , out June 26. Created last spring while Krivchenia was living in a small town in New Mexico, the three tracks, “Temptation Reduced,” “The Eternal Spectator,” and “Touched By An Angel,” combine ASMR, field recordings and “internet spa radio,” among other ambient sounds, to create a post-production soundscape that simultaneously relaxes and provides meta-commentary on what the modern age deems relaxing:
“Partly it’s my attempt at fast slow paced music,” Krivchenia says. “Partly, I was trying to take mundane or banal ‘beauty’ and process it – in the literal musical realm but also within myself. To me, the smooth chilled out background music of our world is often the most terrifying. I wanted to swim in relaxation signifiers but stir the pot, foul it, and have everything sort of bleed together and swirl with pace. Part of immersion for me also contains a sense of confusion and that’s the kind of immersion I’m going for.”
Listen to “Temptation Reduced,” “The Eternal Spectator,”and “Touched By An Angel” below. Keep scrolling to listen to Big Thief’s 2016 Daytrotter session.
