Foto-© Emily Johnston

Unverhofft kommt oft – umso mehr, wenn die ganze Welt gezwungenermaßen während einer Pandemie im Lockdown zuhause sitzt und sich mal mehr, mal weniger langweilt. Da kann schon mal das ein oder andere Album entstehen – und natürlich auch unangekündigt erscheinen! So nun auch im Falle von Shore, dem neuen, vierten Album der Fleet Foxes, das heute überraschend angekündigt und um 15:31 Uhr auch direkt digital via ANTI- veröffentlicht wurde. Physisch erscheint das Album voraussichtlich am 5. Februar 2021. Das Album entstand dabei in den vergangenen Monaten des Lockdowns in Hudson (NY), Paris, Los Angeles, Long Island City und New York City mithilfe der Technikerin Beatriz Artola. Inspiration zog Frontmann Robin Pecknold dabei aus seinen musikalischen Helden Arthur Russell, Nina Simone, Sam Cooke, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guebrou und einigen mehr, die seiner Ansicht nach das Leben im Anblick des nahenden Todes feierten. “I see shore as a place of safety on the edge of something uncertain, staring at Whitman’s waves reciting ‘death,’” sagt Pecknold dazu. “Tempted by the adventure of the unknown at the same time you are relishing the comfort of the stable ground beneath you. This was the mindset I found, the fuel I found, for making this album.”

Weiter führt er aus: „Since the unexpected success of the first Fleet Foxes album over a decade ago, I have spent more time than I’m happy to admit in a state of constant worry and anxiety. Worried about what I should make, how it will be received, worried about the moves of other artists, my place amongst them, worried about my singing voice and mental health on long tours. I’ve never let myself enjoy this process as much as I could, or as much as I should. I’ve been so lucky in so many ways in my life, so lucky to be born with the seeds of the talents I have cultivated and lucky to have had so many unreal experiences. Maybe with luck can come guilt sometimes. I know I’ve welcomed hardship wherever I could find it, real or imagined, as a way of subconsciously tempering all this unreal luck I’ve had. By February 2020, I was again consumed with worry and anxiety over this album and how I would finish it. But since March, with a pandemic spiraling out of control, living in a failed state, watching and participating in a rash of protests and marches against systemic injustice, most of my anxiety around the album disappeared. It just came to seem so small in comparison to what we were all experiencing together. In its place came a gratitude, a joy at having the time and resources to devote to making sound, and a different perspective on how important or not this music was in the grand scheme of things. Music is both the most inessential and the most essential thing. We don’t need music to live, but I couldn’t imagine life without it. It became a great gift to no longer carry any worry or anxiety around the album, in light of everything that is going on. A tour may not happen for a year, music careers may not be what they once were. So it may be, but music remains essential. This reframing was another stroke of unexpected luck I have been the undeserving recipient of. I was able to take the wheel completely and see the album through much better than I had imagined it, with help from so many incredible collaborators, safe and lucky in a new frame of mind.“

Zeitgleich zum Album erscheint ein 16mm Road Movie gleichen Namens von Kersti Jan Werdal, der mit großartigen Landschaftsaufnahmen aus dem Pazifischen Nordwesten aufwartet. Kersti Jan Werdal sagt darüber: “I listened to the album while driving, and observationally shot landscapes that I felt resonated with the music, yet also stood on their own….The film is intended to co-exist and engage with the album, rather than be in a direct and symbiotic relationship with it. The urban and narrative scenes interact with the more surreal landscapes, rather than sit in opposition of one another. My hope is that the film, much like the album does, reflects optimism and strength.”