Esperanzah 2026 – la programmation est complète!
LA PROGRAMMATION MUSICALE D'ESPERANZAH! 2026 EST COMPLÈTE !
Du 31 juillet au 2 août 2026, l’Abbaye de Floreffe se métamorphosera à nouveau pour accueillir l’île Esperanzah! : un territoire éphémère où se rencontrent musique, fête et engagement face à la montée de l’extrême droite qui assombrit notre ciel.

Ici, la culture n'est pas neutre : notre affiche est un archipel de voix fortes. Nous avons déniché des pépites venues d'ici et de l'autre bout du monde. Des artistes qui portent des messages inspirants et bousculent nos habitudes sonores.

Nous sommes fier·es de vous présenter aujourd'hui le cœur musical de cette édition, avec la programmation complète de nos trois scènes principales : la Jardin, la Nova et la Rugissante.

Ce dévoilement n'est que la première escale de l'aventure 2026. Dans les prochaines semaines, l'expérience s'étendra encore avec l'annonce des programmations dédiées aux cultures électroniques, aux arts de la rue et aux débats du Village des Possibles.

LA PROGRAMMATION EN DÉTAILS
VENDREDI 31 JUILLET
La programmation du vendredi affichait déjà de solides arguments avec l'Espagnole Lia Kali, qui met tout le monde d'accord, le rap incisif du duo Scylla & Furax Barbarossa, ou encore la grande promesse Ino Casablanca. L'affiche gagnait déjà en relief avec la rappeuse antifasciste 2L, la reine du dancehall Bamby ou encore l'univers libérateur d'Emel.
Cette sélection s'enrichit aujourd'hui de nouvelles propositions locales et festives qui viennent compléter l'expérience du festival. La scène belge sera fièrement représentée par Nicou et ses textes engagés, ainsi que par Nena Planeta et ses sonorités fusion captivantes.
Pour parfaire ce tableau, le stand-up inclusif de l'Atout Comedy Club ouvrira la journée, plaçant d'emblée l'événement sous le signe du rire et de la bienveillance. Enfin, le karaoké live des Vedettes du Terroir, véritable institution attendue par nos festivalier·es, promet une ambiance électrique !

SAMEDI 1ER AOÛT
L'affiche du samedi s'annonce d'une richesse exceptionnelle. On pouvait déjà compter sur la présence du grand Kery James et de la révélation Luiza et son Soleil Bleu. On y retrouvait aussi le génie créatif d'Ana Frango Elétrico ainsi que la puissante Bia Ferreira, deux figures incontournables de la scène brésilienne contemporaine.
Chezidek, voix majeure du reggae roots jamaïcain, rejoint le line-up de la scène Jardin, pour le plus grand plaisir des amateur·ices de reggae. À ses côtés, nous offrons une carte blanche à Marylène Corro. L’artiste belge aura l’honneur d’ouvrir la scène Jardin avec son projet qui nous offre un voyage organique teinté de jazz et de pop.
Sur la scène Nova, c'est un véritable ovni afro-électro qui s'invite avec ARTICLE15. Pas sur que vous verrez un set comme celui-ci deux fois dans votre vie.
On poursuit avec Astéréotypie qui s’annonce comme l’un des temps forts de la journée : un live post-punk électro aussi engagé qu'explosif, porté par une poésie brute et lucide. Une décharge d’énergie pure qui bouscule les normes et qui promet de retourner la scène Rugissante.
Sur cette même scène, découvrez aussi l'électro radicale aux inspirations Hyperpop de Graphy-T, ainsi que la Barakakings, repaire merveilleux de drag kings, queers et créatures en tout genre. Enfin, la journée finit de s'étoffer avec l'arrivée du groupe belge I don't clean the house. Ce collectif bouscule les codes avec une house instrumentale aussi dansante que percutante, portée par un engagement féministe pas piqué des hannetons.

DIMANCHE 2 AOÛT
La Niña, Rokia Traoré, Yoa, Colt, Tukan, Mathilde, Son Rompe Pera, Chocolate Remix… Autant de beaux noms déjà annoncés pour le dimanche 2 août.
Iels seront rejoints sur la scène Nova par Ko Shin Moon, un projet hybride mêlant instruments à cordes et machines. Le groupe explore des sonorités transnationales entre Turquie, Inde et Moyen-Orient, pour une immersion électro-traditionnelle qui donne vraiment envie de faire la fête.
Cette journée accueillera aussi Radio Gaza.  Ce collectif réunit le Watar Band et le rappeur Abu Joury en mêlant rock, traditions et hip-hop pour faire résonner le son d'une Palestine vivante, festive et résistante. LVDV, grand gagnant de l’émission Playground sur Tarmac et nouvelle pépite du rap belge, sera également de la partie.
Enfin, la programmation de la scène Rugissante ne serait pas complète sans le retour de l’Atout Comedy Club et des Vedettes du Terroir !

LA CULTURE N'EST PAS UN DIVERTISSEMENT NEUTRE
Organiser un festival, c’est politique. C’est décider quel imaginaire nous voulons laisser infuser dans nos têtes.
L'expérience ne s'arrête pas à la scène. Entre concerts engagés, arts de la rue et débats, nous bâtissons un espace où les générations se croisent pour refuser l'anesthésie générale. Nous voulons construire un lieu qui donne de l'élan, où la musique est un manifeste.
Esperanzah! est une bulle nécessaire, une parenthèse où l'on vient vider son esprit pour mieux remplir son cœur. On y vient pour s'évader de la réalité, mais aussi pour puiser la force de la transformer.

LA JOIE COLLECTIVE COMME MOTEUR
Se réunir, danser et s'engager ensemble, c'est cultiver cette bouffée d'espoir indispensable pour affronter les démons qui assombrissent notre ciel. Plus qu'un festival, Esperanzah! est une aventure humaine qui prouve que, lorsque nous faisons front ensemble, l'horizon s'éclaircit.

www.esperanzah.be  

Even voorstellen - Wouter Thijssen - 'Broer', full album
Thorn In My Side Recordings
Release: 17 maart 2026

Videoclip Wondermooie Rotzooi Wouter Thijssen - Wondermooie Rotzooi Wouter Thijssen - Wondermooie Rotzooi
Videoclip Wille Wouter Thijssen - Wille
Videoclip Vroeger Toen We Mooier Waren Wouter Thijssen - Vroeger Toen We Mooier Waren
"Broer grijpt terug naar een woelig verleden, vol littekens, rebellie en huiselijk geweld. Mijn oudere broer Wille en ik. Vluchtend in de groeven van het Zwarte Goud dat zich opstapelde in onze kamers. Hij één en al dadendrang en anarchie terwijl ik me terugtrok in mijn verbeelding. Wille ging ten onder, ik leefde voort met zijn geest die in me rondwaarde. Mijn nieuwe plaat brengt hulde aan onze unieke broederband en aan een verleden dat we nooit kunnen bezweren." - Wouter Thijssen

Echo’s van de alternatieve rock uit de jaren ’80 en ’90 en een karakteristieke stem typeerden het debuutalbum van Wouter Thijssen dat eind 2019 verscheen. Voor opvolger Broer omringde Thijssen zich door vaste bandleden Michel Becx (drums) en Sean Willekens (bas). Dit tweede album pakt uit met scherpe songs en stevig gitaarwerk. Het nieuwe werk, bevolkt door anarchisten, punkers, misfits, drop-outs en andere jonge delinquenten, rekent af met een woelig verleden. Onder meer geïnspireerd door een achtergelaten fotoboek van zijn overleden punkbroer Wille dat de excessen, de idealen en de dadendrang van een lang vervlogen subcultuur van punks uit de jaren tachtig documenteert. Het fotoboek was ook de aanleiding voor de postume instagramaccount Wille_1971.

Credits:
Tekst, muziek & productie: Wouter Thijssen
Zang, gitaren, toetsen: Wouter Thijssen
Bas: Sean Willekens
Drums: Michel Becx
Opname en techniek: Koenraad Foesters @ Studio Jupiter

Live:
2 april, Café Café, Hasselt

26 juni, Djingel Djangel, Antwerpen

5 juli, MoMeNT, Tongeren-Borgloon

Meer live data tba

Even voorstellen - Former black midi member Cameron Picton’s new band, debut album ‘My New Band Believe’ out April 10th 2026

Watch video to new track ‘Numerology’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21zVFKf7vSk
“love story” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zztKclSNRz8

My New Band Believe (the new band from former black midi bassist and sometime frontman Cameron Picton) are happy to announce their debut album ‘My New Band Believe’ which will be released through Rough Trade Records on April 10th 2026. The launch track ‘Numerology’ is an exclusive non-album single and will feature on a bonus 10”, with a special edition of the LP and on limited edition Deluxe CD.

My New Band Believe’s debut album began as a fever dream. Delirious in a Chinese hotel room, Cameron Picton was battling through the worst of a sudden illness when he was overcome by flashes of weird imagery and loose ribbons of scrambled text. The musician would later salvage and shape some of these fragments into songs, but the one that lodged most clearly in his mind was the odd phrase, “My New Band Believe.”

As the bassist and sometime frontman of black midi, Picton and his bandmates practiced an explosive form of musical world-building, weaving complex story-telling through thrilling passages of controlled chaos. When the group called it quits in 2023, the artist didn’t immediately feel like making a solo record or jumping back into another band. It was from this position of a not-quite team player, not-quite bandleader that Picton entered the studio and the seeds of My New Band Believe gradually began to emerge.

My New Band Believe is as epic and ritzy as Picton’s previous work in black midi but its sound is fleet-footed rather than scorching. The record is almost entirely acoustic, using the barest amount of reverb and electronic effects possible. It would be a mistake however to assume these light touches mean that their music is any less maximal. The crispness of the sound only helps to emphasize its dynamism. Taking flight off the back of a full string section, Picton leads his band so that each track forms, scatters and re-groups, so that the uplift of one song crashes head-long into the rush of another.

Stand-alone single “Numerology” has its dancing shoes on. Over barrelling, instrumental dance music, Picton embraces chance and risk, weighing the potential for disaster, while leaning into the thrill of fun and danger.

The group’s debut is a massive and hallucinatory record. It is a collection of music that swerves through wildly different emotional and thematic registers, all the while unraveling an endlessly compelling thread of dream logic. Picton is an unreliable but charismatic narrator. and together with a cast of all-star players including Kiran Leonard, Caius Williams, Steve Noble, Andrew Cheetham, he guides the listener through a rapidly unfolding multi-verse of the band’s making. With My New Band Believe, he not only comes into his own as a bandleader but arranges conflicting, fragmentary, and hysterical ideas until they form a brilliant new kind of sense.

Track listing

1. Target Practice
2. In the Blink of an Eye
3. Heart of Darkness
4. Love Story
5. Pearls
6. Opposite Teacher
7. Actress
8. One Night

Track listing LPE w/ Bonus 10”

1. Target Practice
2. In the Blink of an Eye
3. Heart of Darkness
4. Love Story
5. Pearls
6. Opposite Teacher
7. Actress
8. One Night

+ Bonus 10”

1. Numerology (One Night)
2. Numerology (One Night) (Istrumental)

Tracklisting CDE w/ Bonus CD of Audio

1. Target Practice
2. In the Blink of an Eye
3. Heart of Darkness
4. Love Story
5. Pearls
6. Opposite Teacher
7. Actress
8. One Night

+ Bonus CD

1. Numerology
2. Numerology (Instrumental)
3. Numerology (Pre-mix Edit)
4. Numerology (Remix Solo)
5. Numerology (One Night)
6. Numerology (Demo)
7. Numerology (71331295238)

Even voorstellen - Arra Di Allas & Marco Giongrandi - 'In A Shell', EP

Release: 17th March 2026
In a Shell - Single by Arra Di Allas & Marco Giongrandi | Spotify

The debut EP 'In A Shell' is a collection of songs Arra Di Allas and Marco Giongrandi named “Cowboysongs for extraterrestrials”. Although each song depicts a rather peaceful scenery, Arra & Marco chose to shine a surreal, sometimes even dark, spotlight on them from time to time, using their unconventional arrangement style.

'In A Shell' is a prequel to the full album Arra Di Allas & Marco Giongrandi will release on Belgian quality label W.E.R.F. Records at the end of 2027.
Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Arra Di Allas (Mòs Ensemble, Belcirque,...) and guitarist/banjoist Marco Giongrandi (Dear Uncle Lennie, Martha Moore, Hendrik Lasure,...) both have been playing with and composing for several bands, national and international cross-over projects for more then 15 years. Arra Di Allas & Marco Giongrandi create a musical playground where warm acoustic sounds, as we would find with Nick Drake, Joanna Newsom, Bill Frisell & Joni Mitchell, flutter down onto a mysterious landscape that hints to David Lynch's Twin Peaks. Mandolin, voice, guitar and banjo are being mixed together with 80's synths and guitar pedals. All music is originally written by Astrid Creve, who has been playing with Arra Di Allas for some time as a solo project, and arranged by both musicians.

"The title track tells the story of a someone carrying around a shell, like a snail, while roaming through the Highlands. Although they carry their house on their backs, they keep looking out at the sea, dreaming of being found a home." - Arra Di Allas & Marco Giongrandi
Join them in a dreamy world where extraterrestrial visits never seem far away.
Single 'El Lonesome'
El Lonesome - song and lyrics by Arra Di Allas & Marco Giongrandi | Spotify

Single 'In A Shell'
In a Shell - Single by Arra Di Allas & Marco Giongrandi | Spotify
All music is written and composed by Arra Di Allas and arranged by Arra Di Allas & Marco Giongrandi.
Recorded at Marco's place (the attick).
Mixed by Marco Giongrandi.
Mastered by Gert van Hoof/Cochlea Mastering.

Arra Di Allas: voice, mandolin, casio & whistle

Marco Giongrandi: el. & ac. guitar, voice & whistle

Live:

5th April, Hot Club Gent in collaboration with NEST

10th April, Koning Ezel, Lede

25th April, Brasserie ILLEGAAL, Vorst

17th June, Hidden Jams, in collaboration with GC De Maalbeek, Etterbeek

Even voorstellen – Widowspeak – Roses

april 26 “no driver” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ao2cxCdGR0

march 26 “IF YOU CHANGE” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS1YGiW4EM8

LIVE:

10/12 wilde westen/kortrijk
11/12 aff/hasselt

Now, NYC duo Widowspeak have announced their new album Roses, due out June 5th via Captured Tracks. Lead single “If You Change” captures everything that’s made the long-running group a staying force, from its breezy guitars to the impossibly rich chorus, there’s a timeless quality imbued with the twang of a Lynchian roadhouse band.

On the single, vocalist Molly Hamilton says she “thought about the fear of change, and when things (situations, objects) feel stuck in time because of a fear of ruining them. You always hear “mint condition” as though it is as an asset, but it also means that thing hasn’t been used, lived with, loved. It never gets to fulfill its destiny.”

The longtime duo of Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas, Roses arrives as Widowspeak’s seventh album. One of many bands to crop up in a fertile New York City music scene over 16 years ago, they started out shuffling gear between venues now-since shuttered (Glasslands, Cake Shop, 285 Kent, Death By Audio to name a few) and their practice space in Monster Island Basement (now a Trader Joe’s). Widowspeak is now a married couple, working day jobs in their own off-season. Robert is a carpenter, Molly a waitress. Roses is populated not with dramatic overtures but with the backdrop of the minutiae and repetition of daily acts.  Small observations before, during, and after work: the ritual of pouring water for customers, catching a cold on your day off.  Daydreaming about winning the lottery, or maybe realizing you already won.

They recorded the album last January at the Old Carpet Factory on the Greek island Hydra: a studio in an old house tucked into the village’s steep hills.  It’s quiet there in winter, when the tourists have all gone home. Longtime touring members Willy Muse, John Andrews, and Noah Bond serve here as the players.  Roses was then taken home and slowly, lightly tinkered with, before being deftly mixed by Alex Farrar at Drop of Sun Studios, and mastered by Greg Obis at Chicago Mastering.

“Incidentally one of my favorite childhood books is “The Velveteen Rabbit” and growing up we had this VHS copy of Meryl Streep reading it over Ken Burns-esque slow-panned illustrations,” shares Hamilton on the playful video. “It’s sort of burned into my mind.  Even now, I can hear her voice saying “I am real!”  My sister ended up getting me a copy of it on vinyl, which is incredible.  Maybe I’ve also been thinking about it more now because we have a board book version we read to the baby. But, the point of the story is that only through being loved can something become “real”... and that’s sort of how the video came to be what it is.”

Across the ten tracks that make up Roses, intimate spaces and stages of love are captured with a nostalgic, vaseline-coated lens. If music can simultaneously be naturalistic and noir, saturated and lush, that is Widowspeak.  This is a band that knows how to set a scene.

There’s dream and power pop, a little Stones, maybe some Petty, open and languid ballads with the twang of a Lynchian roadhouse band… Perhaps you hear REM, Yo La Tengo or Cat Power. A little Neil Young in Hamilton’s references to working at the diner.  The magic of the band is, still and always, the interplay between Molly and Robert in their two leading roles: her languid, textured voice and his visceral guitar playing. And as producer, Robert captures the ephemeral magic of a band finding a song in the studio: something that still bears traces of the directness of Molly’s voice memos and the dense guitar tapestries of the demos. The rough-hewn marks of the tools are still evident, the noise kept in. 

“Can’t hold too tight or I’ll have nothing, Like a candy melts in your hand.” As the album closer  “Hourglass” contemplates the fleeting nature of something, anything, it illustrates what is most true about Widowspeak.   At the heart of it, their music is special because it is real: most of all for the people making it. Fragile and temporary, and worthwhile… like love itself.

Tracklist:

1. The Hook
2. No Driver
3. Roses
4. If You Change
5. Wondering
6. Angel Number
7. Soft Cover
8. Heaven is Waiting
9. Actor
10. Hourglass

Sony music latest news
Suzan & Freek – Halverwege
In aanloop naar hun tien uitverkochte GelreDome concerten in mei brengen Suzan & Freek vandaag hun nieuwe single ‘Halverwege’ uit.
Suzan & Freek over hun nieuwe track: “Durven leunen op elkaar. Dat is voor ons één van de belangrijkste dingen in onze relatie, en het is iets wat we al achttien jaar proberen te doen: er voor elkaar zijn”. Ook de bijbehorende video is heel persoonlijk. “De video is een inkijkje in de afgelopen drieënhalve maand, waarin we volledig hebben kunnen genieten van onze lieve Sef, van elkaar en van het leven”.
In de zomer staat het duo op meerdere festivals in Nederland en België.
Halverwege

The Scratch – Pull Like A Dog
Pull Like A Dog is het tweede, meest ambitieuze album van het Ierse viertal The Scratch, geïnspireerd door de motivatie-uitspraak van olympische roeiers Gary en Paul O’Donovan.
De plaat, opgenomen in 13 intense dagen met producer Spud Murphy, toont de veelzijdigheid van de band via krachtige, rauwe tracks en introspectieve momenten, waaronder de singles ‘Pull Like A Dog’, ‘Pullin’ Teeth’ en ‘Gladrags’.
Met thema’s variërend van rouw tot vriendschap en verandering markeert het album een nieuw begin voor de band, versterkt door de komst van gitarist Gary “Gaz” Regan.
Deze zomer zijn ze te zien op maandag 3 augustus op de Lokerse Feesten! 
Pull Like a Dog - Album by The Scratch | Spotify

Vinyl
Sananda Maitreya - Juvenilia: The Columbia Years
‘Juvenelia: The Columbia Years’ is een zorgvuldig samengestelde 6LP box op 180g vinyl met de 4 albums die Sananda Maitreya tussen 1987 en 1995 op het Columbia label uitbracht. Hierin vind je naast de tijdloze classic ‘Introducing the Hardline’ ook ‘Neither Fish Nor Flesh, ‘Symphony or Damn’ en ‘Vibrator’.
Deze albums werden door de artiest opnieuw gemastered en zijn nu voor het eerst samen beschikbaar. ‘Vibrator’ is zelfs nu na 30 jaar pas voor het eerst beschikbaar op vinyl. Zoals Sananda het zelf zegt: “These albums represent the journey of a young artist finding his voice: bold, vulnerable, and unafraid to challenge the form. It feels beautiful to finally present them together, in the spirit they were born”.
Voor deze schitterende box set schreef Sananda uitgebreide nieuwe liners notes bij elk album en de 6LPs zijn geperst op gekleurd vinyl.

www.sonymusic.com

FKP Scorpio concert – Slayyyter

SLAYYYTER BRENGT WOR$T GIRL IN THE WORLD TOUR OP WOENSDAG 28 OKTOBER 2026 NAAR TRIX

De Amerikaanse popartieste SLAYYYTER komt op woensdag 28 oktober 2026 naar Trix in Antwerpen met haar nieuwe WOR$T GIRL IN THE WORLD TOUR. Popsterren komen in alle vormen en maten, maar SLAYYYTER behoort duidelijk tot de categorie die het hele idee van pop vrolijk door elkaar schudt. Glitter, attitude en een gezonde dosis chaos inbegrepen, want als SLAYYYTER ergens opduikt, blijven de lijntjes zelden netjes.

Tickets zijn beschikbaar via fkpscorpio.be

Sinds haar doorbraak met de self-titled mixtape in 2019 beweegt SLAYYYTER zich moeiteloos tussen verschillende popwerelden. Met haar debuutalbum Troubled Paradise (2021) en het flamboyante STARFUCKER (2023) groeide ze uit tot één van de meest eigenzinnige stemmen in de hedendaagse pop. Haar hit "Daddy AF" ging viraal online en kreeg later een opvallend moment in de Oscar-winnende film Anora. Ondertussen kreeg ze lof van media als Billboard, Paper, Variety, Rolling Stone en Pitchfork, en stond ze op het podium met artiesten als Tove Lo en Kesha. Tegelijk bouwde ze online een fanbase op die haar compromisloze popstijl met open armen omarmde.

Maar ondanks dat succes besloot SLAYYYTER dat het tijd was om nog een stap verder te gaan. Minder filter, meer instinct. Minder personages, meer zichzelf. Of zoals ze het zelf samenvat: de WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA.

Met haar derde album WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA slaat SLAYYYTER een nieuw hoofdstuk in haar carrière open. Het is tegelijk haar meest persoonlijke en meest compromisloze project tot nu toe. Voor de plaat keerde ze terug naar haar roots in St. Louis en maakte ze wat ze zelf "iPod music" noemt: een wilde mix van feral punk, corroded pop en schaamteloze rap. Muziek die klinkt alsof ze rechtstreeks uit een chaotische tienerplaylist komt, waar alles tegelijk mag gebeuren.

Met singles als "BEAT UP CHANEL$", "CANNIBALISM!" en "CRANK" bouwde ze in 2025 al stevig momentum op, terwijl fans massaal vielen voor deze rauwere, brutale versie van SLAYYYTER. WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA voelt als een resetknop: de SLAYYYTER die we dachten te kennen wordt achtergelaten, zodat een nieuwe, nog luidere versie kan opstaan.

Op woensdag 28 oktober 2026 brengt ze die energie naar Trix in Antwerpen. Wie SLAYYYTER al eens live aan het werk zag, weet dat haar shows zelden lang braaf blijven. Refreinen worden luidkeels meegezongen, de energie gaat de hoogte in en tegen het einde van de avond voelt het soms een beetje alsof iedereen samen in dezelfde chaotische popplaylist is beland.

En laat dat nu net de bedoeling zijn.

Praktische info
Datum: woensdag 28 oktober 2026
Locatie: Trix, Antwerpen
Tickets: beschikbaar www.fkpscorpio.be

SLAYYYTER werkt voor deze tour samen met PLUS1. Van elk verkocht ticket gaat €1.20 naar lokale organisaties in elke tourstad die zich inzetten voor de gezondheid, het welzijn en de empowerment van LGBTQI+ gemeenschappen.

Even voorstellen – Death Cab For Cutie – new album, ‘I built you a tower’
DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM ‘I BUILT YOU A TOWER’
OUT JUNE 5TH ON ANTI- RECORDS
First single “Riptides” out now
Riptides - Single by Death Cab for Cutie | Spotify
Now, indie rock titans and eight-time GRAMMY nominees Death Cab for Cutie – Benjamin Gibbard, Nicholas Harmer, Jason McGerr, Dave Depper and Zac Rae – announce their 11th studio album. I Built You A Tower, will be released on June 5th via ANTI- Records. The move marks the band’s return to their independent roots after 20 years on Atlantic Records. Produced and engineered by John Congleton and assembled from a mere three weeks of sessions, I Built You A Tower was recorded at Animal Rites in Los Angeles, as well as the band members’ homes in Seattle, Bellingham, Los Angeles and Portland.

Alongside today’s album announcement, Death Cab for Cutie share the album’s propulsive first single, “Riptides.” Speaking on the single Gibbard says, "Riptides” is about the challenge of dealing with personal struggles as the world around us experiences tragedy and loss on an unfathomable scale. And how when these two elements intertwine themselves in our psyches, it feels utterly paralyzing.".

In recent years, Death Cab celebrated several historic milestones, including massive sold-out tours celebrating the 20th anniversaries of seminal releases Transatlanticism and Plans. Those tours were pivotal to the creation of I Built You A Tower, as behind the scenes, Gibbard weathered the greatest pressure of his professional life — fronting both Death Cab and the Postal Service on arena stages for hours a night — while struggling with the collapse of his personal life in the background. The strain felt too much for one person to bear, and the “tower” originated as a way to protect himself. “There’s this need to find a place in ourselves to put loss and grief,” he explains. “A place that can hold it so we can move on with our lives. But there are these moments where the trauma breaks out of that shell we created for it.”

I Built You A Tower is an album of reconciling with past selves in order to locate a new future. “The anniversary tours exorcised any nostalgia in our systems,” Depper observes. “We felt part of this powerful force greater than all of us and went into the studio with a sense of, how can we capture that feeling and put it into something new?” Harmer continues, “The whole experience of this record got us back to the earliest versions of this band: If the musicians in the room like what we’re working on, that’s enough. We reconnected with the confidence that comes with that.” As such, this is not the dreaded “return to form” narrative, but a reclamation of a core ethos that has run through Death Cab’s 30-year history.

Now the band also announces an autumn UK/EU tour, with tickets going on sale this Friday at 10 am locally. These performances come on the heels of a historic, sold-out global tour in marking the 20th anniversary of Transatlanticism plus their universally acclaimed 10th studio effort, 2022’s Asphalt Meadows. Sign up for early access to tickets at deathcabforcutie.com.

September 30 - Brussels, Belgium - Cirque Royal

Tracklisting
1. Full of Stars

2. Punching The Flowers
3. Pep Talk
4. I Built You A Tower (a)
5. Envy The Birds
6. Stone Over Water
7. How Heavenly a State
8. Trap Door
9. Riptides
10. The Flavor of Metal
11. I Built You A Tower (b)
    
    More on Death Cab for Cutie and I Built You A Tower:
    You could easily mistake it for romantic tribute. I Built You A Tower, the phrase that gives Death Cab for Cutie’s 11th album its title, sounds like a paean or plea to a former love. An obelisk and work of art, a testament to what you had with one another. Something so great surely it could never collapse. But for Ben Gibbard it was quite different, a sturdy tomb of stone in which he could — temporarily and in vain — hide the past away just so he could push through when grief threatened to consume him.
    
    I Built You A Tower is an album of reconciling with past selves in order to locate a new future. This was true for Death Cab for Cutie as much as it was for Gibbard himself. After 20-odd years in the major label system, the band returned to their indie roots and signed with ANTI- Records. The move coincided with Death Cab embarking on a writing and recording process more akin to their initial run of albums in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, filtered through lessons learned through the textural experimentation of their ‘10s records and a decade-plus with their current quintet lineup: Gibbard, bassist Nick Harmer, drummer Jason McGerr and multi-instrumentalists Dave Depper and Zac Rae.
    
    Before all that, Death Cab for Cutie first revisited the past. The 2023-2025 tours celebrating the 20th anniversaries of seminal releases Transatlanticism and Plans were pivotal to the creation of I Built You A Tower. Spending so much time in the world of beloved old releases reminded the quintet the connection they could achieve with fans and each other through more stripped-down songs relative to the layered, maximalist work they had favoured in recent years. Soon after wrapping the Plans shows, the band gathered in the studio once more with producer John Congleton, harnessing the post-tour energy to record a raw, vulnerable new set of songs from Gibbard with the urgency they demanded.
    
    After 2018’s Thank You for Today found the quintet figuring out how to record together and 2022’s Asphalt Meadows’ pandemic gestation necessitated a remote “chain letter” writing process, I Built You A Tower provided an opportunity to represent the interplay that had developed since Depper and Rae first joined as auxiliary touring members in support of 2015’s Kintsugi.
    
    Trusting Congleton after their collaboration on Asphalt Meadows, Death Cab let him lead them into a more pared-down, immediate aesthetic — songs sometimes caustic (Harmer and Depper’s angsty co-write “How Heavenly a State”) and sometimes wistfully twilit (“I Built You A Tower (a)”) always delivered with the lean muscle of the five men in the room with minimal ornamentation. The album came together in a mere three weeks and change, the fastest since The Photo Album. “We weren’t afraid of a deeply human sound, some messiness,” Gibbard asserts. “This isn’t an airbrushed photograph. This is what we look like, this is what we sound like.”
    
    For Gibbard, keeping these songs visceral and undistilled served other purposes, echoing the personal turmoil they depicted and the malleability I Built You A Tower took on over time. During those anniversary tours, Gibbard weathered the greatest pressure of his professional life while struggling with the collapse of his marriage in the background. Though heartbreak remains eternally fertile ground for songwriters, Gibbard was seeking something else when the songs poured out amidst the anniversary tours. I Built You A Tower is not a divorce record, but rather a record about the aftermath — running from or sidelining grief, coming to terms with the emotional debt that accrues, one man’s at-times harrowing reckoning with himself and the past lives left in his wake. There is no score-settling, no bitterness. At least, none aimed at another person. Across the album, you hear Gibbard build a tower while he dismantles himself.
    
    There is a specific arc across the project, from the bad thoughts creeping up in “Pep Talk,” to Gibbard explicitly confessing “I’m trying to hold it together” in “Stone Over Water,” until the propulsive “Riptides” exposes a desperate admission it’s not working. I Built You A Tower captures coping mechanisms failing at every turn, yet nevertheless arrives at a decision to carry on. By the end, the shape of the tower changes.
    
    I Built You A Tower is the sound of loss, compartmentalisation and then grief bursting out from the seams. But it’s also the sound of the growth that comes after falling apart, of acknowledging pain without letting it destroy you. “I see the tower existing on your emotional horizon,” Gibbard concludes.
    
    “You don’t always have to look at what’s inside it, but it’s a reminder that it happened. You know it’s there. You have to face it.”