YAWNING SONS, the cult collaboration between desert rock legends Yawning Man and post-rock visionaries Sons of Alpha Centauri, are set to unleash their new album 'Sky Island' this Friday on Ripple Music. It features guest performances from Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson), Scott Reeder (Kyuss), Wendy Rae Fowler (Earthlings?) and Dandy Brown (Hermano), and you can stream it in full now!
For the follow-up to their 2009 debut 'Ceremony to the Sunset', the original lineup of Gary Arce (Yawning Man) and Sons of Alpha Centauri returns, once again including guest performances from Mario Lalli, Scott Reeder and Wendy Rae Fowler on vocals. A desert rock heritage lineup that also includes respected desert rock stalwart Dandy Brown (Hermano, Orquesta del Desierto) on several tracks.
Peaceful yet intrinsically bound to the natural elements that makes the desert such a mystical and out-of-time space, the music of YAWNING SONS really brings the best of both bands into the light; Yawning Man’s sophisticated musicality interlaid with fluctuating and vulnerable songwriting and Sons of Alpha Centauri’s dense, symphonic and enveloping loudness. Recorded in Joshua Tree, the heat and sun permeate through its kaleidoscopic and reverb-drenched ambiences at the crossroads of desert rock, indie, post-rock and shoegaze. Mastered by John McBain (Desert Sessions, Monster Magnet), 'Sky Island' will see a March 26th release through Ripple Music on vinyl, CD and digital.
“Sky Island represents a maturation of desert rock's potential, a genre which was fittingly founded in the American desert during the early 1990s by Yawning Man and their contemporaries. Carefully tone-crafted and luxuriously sculpted, even when it's whisper-quiet, Sky Island simmers with white-hot heat. (...) An album that you can get lost in, and one that creates its own plane of existence for you to experience it in." — Invisible Oranges.
"Look at that moon: we're really in the desert now." — Gary Arce, Desert Sky Studios 2018.
And with those words, the recording session of the second YAWNING SONS album concluded. Recorded live in the deepest part of Joshua Tree, 'Sky Island' reinforces Yawning Sons as a collaborative phenomenon firmly adjoining desert rock heritage with progressive instrumentation.
Before they gathered in Joshua Tree, the YAWNING SONS story started in 2008 when, during the pre-production of their then second album, Sons of Alpha Centauri invited Gary Arce from Yawning Man over to the UK to work with them to develop and record some of the material. From the very first initial session, it was evident that something unique and special had been born. Drenched in reverb and swirling in ambience, the band YAWNING SONS had taken flight. The band, a portmanteau of the two respective collaborative bands, was joined by fellow Yawning Man founder Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson, Desert Sessions), Scott Reeder (Kyuss, The Obsessed) and Wendy Rae Fowler (Queens of the Stone Age, earthlings?) on vocals. Their debut album 'Ceremony to the Sunset' was released in 2009 to near universal critical acclaim, and within five years was re-released on vinyl, heralded as a "desert classic" and Yawning Sons had progressed to cult status.
In 2020, the band joined the respected ranks of leading Californian independent powerhouse Ripple Music for the release of their sophomore studio album 'Sky Island', to be issued on March 26th, 2021.
YAWNING SONS is:
Gary Arce — guitars
Marlon King — guitars/vocals
Nick Hannon — bass
Stevie B — drums
Kyle Hanson — drums
Blake — effects
'Sky Island' vocalists:
Marlon King on "Adrenaline Rush"
Dandy Brown on "Low in the Valley", "Gravity Underwater"
Mario Lalli on "Cigarette Footsteps"
Wendy Rae Fowler on "Shadows and Echoes"
Scott Reeder on "Digital Spirit"
RIPPLE MUSIC LINKS
Website⎪Facebook⎪Bandcamp⎪Instagram⎪Youtube
YAWNING SONS LINKS
Website⎪Facebook⎪Bandcamp
