Justin Walter announces new record, Destroyer, out on October 13th via Kranky

The music of Justin Walter veers between nebulous and numinous, coaxed from the translucent tonalities of his signature instrument, the EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument). Destroyer, his upcoming record, and third for Kranky, marks his most multifaceted work yet. Inspired by minimalistic urges, such as evading grandiosity, condensing scope and embracing spatial restraint, tempered with the drama of triptychs (becoming, destruction, aftermath), the record’s eleven tracks thread a keening suite of aching, opaque beauty, traced in absence and breath. First begun in the the no man’s land summer of 2020, Walter gradually amassed nearly two hours of demos, drafts and ideas, and then steadily whittled them to their essence. Destroyer enlists the sounds of a recently restored pump organ, adding pulses and quaking texture, but otherwise, the record is a shimmering showcase of the EVI – miasmic, melodic, intuitive, infinite. It’s music of fraught devotion and uneasy peace, questing yet languorous, forever rapt and untethered.

Destroyer will be released on October 13th via Kranky. Pre-orders are now available here.

Photo credit: Freddie Collins