Ahead of its release this Friday, Nicolas Jaar is previewing his new album, Telas, on his newly relaunched website.
The record marks the electronic music composer’s third full-length of 2020, following his March album Cenizas and February’s 2017-2019, an industrial techno record he released under his alias Against All Logic. The hour-long Telas is broken up into four distinct parts — “Telahora”, “Telencima”, “Telahumo”, and “Telallás” — one of which was already shared by Jaar back in May during a Radio Alhara performance. Additional musical contributions come courtesy of cellist Milena Punzi, vocalist Susanna Gonzo, and instrument makers Anna Ippolito and Marzio Zorio, with mastering being handled by Heba Kadry.
According to Jaar’s revamped website, Telas is more than just an album but a “visual” and “digital” terrain: “a panspermic terrain where no matter — whether existing in thought, physical form or other — has a solid or unmovable origin.” Beginning today, fans can experience the album in its “liquid state” by visiting the website Telas.Parts. There’s no text or menu options, just a bunch of hieroglyphic-esque illustrations moving around while untitled passages of the record play in the background. These visual components were conceived by the producer and his collaborators, visual artist Somnath Bhatt and web developer Abeera Kamran.
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A full “solid state” version of the new album will be out Friday; the digital release is being handled by Jaar’s own Other People label, while physical versions are being done through Mana Records, the same imprint that pressed his 2015 album Pomegranates to vinyl. Other People recently announced that all of their streaming and record sale revenue will be donated to various Black Lives Matter-adjacent nonprofits.
In an extraordinary Resident Advisor profile from late April, Jaar revealed that all three of his 2020 albums were initially supposed to be issued simultaneously in January. However, a litany of factors including mastering delays and difficulties in his home country of Chile caused the release dates to be scattered throughout the rest of the year.
Telas Tracklist:
01. Telahora
02. Telencima
03. Telahumo
04. Telallás
