Half Moon Run Announce New Album 'Salt'

Montreal's Half Moon Run announce their next full-length album, the group's fourth, Salt is set for release on June 2, 2023 on the band's new record label, BMG.

The new song released today, "Alco" serves up classic and timely Half Moon Run - it combines an unearthed 2012 ukulele riff, with additional recordings from 2022. Magical and mystical vibes waft through the track: brushed drums, finger picked guitar, those quintessential three-part harmonies meeting in the chorus, and then the strings. It all combines to sound perfectly - Half Moon Run.

Band member, Conner Molander explains, "Devon took a ukulele on a trip to Thailand in 2012. When he got back to Montreal, he played the opening riff of 'Alco' for us - and we loved it! We started developing the song around that time, but kept running into roadblocks with the arrangement. It's such a pleasure now to feel like we finally cracked the code after all these years. Personally I love the elven textures that decorate this recording - it feels mystical!"

"Alco" follows previous single + video for "You Can Let Go" a runaway-paced track that Devon Portielje describes as, "A tumultuous, transformative journey through the dark places of the mind towards, hopefully, the light." It is the album opener for Salt.

Conner reveals some of the process of the new album, and how the band creatively and carefully mines the past to create the future. "On our first European tour in 2012, we bought a little Tascam 2-track recorder. We used it to capture our live shows - we'd listen back looking for ways to improve.

From that point on, it also replaced Devon's old cassette recorder as our most important and long-standing piece of songwriting technology. We use it every single time we write together, keeping it on constantly while we jam and improvise. Listening back to what we just did is a crucial part of our process - one of the only single techniques we dogmatically rely on."

"On Salt, there's a track called '9beat.' For that song alone, Devon went through several hundred different Tascam recordings, mining for lyrical and melodic content. We've been working on that song for the better part of a decade, and that's true of several songs on this record - 'Alco,' 'Hotel in Memphis,' 'Dodge the Rubble,' 'Salt'... There's also brand new material, written during the pandemic, like 'Gigafire,' and 'Goodbye Cali.' This record represents a broad, sweeping scope of output from different eras of this band."

The pre-order + save of the new album offers vinyl copies that will be available as of September 8 on standard both 180g black vinyl and in a Limited Edition Sand Colored 180g vinyl.

Since Half Moon Run's last album, A Blemish in the Great Light (Glassnote/Universal, 2019), there's been a global pandemic and a sea-change in the live music industry. Meanwhile, the band's put out three releases-two EPs and a collection of reworked "isolation versions" of older songs. Half Moon Run netted two Juno Awards both for 'Adult Alternative Album of the Year' in 2020 for A Blemish in the Great Light, and again in 2022 for their EP Inwards & Onwards.

In 2021 they were nominated for 'Group of the Year' and also in 2016 for 'Breakthrough Group.' Half Moon run also saw their fourth member, multi-instrumentalist Isaac Symonds, depart the band to move to Western Canada. The remaining trio - Devon Portielje, Conner Molander, and Dylan Phillips -are also the band's founding trio and the foundation moving forward.

Half Moon Run's collaborative power has remained constant and unsuppressed and Salt sees them revisiting the site of their bond's first forging, bringing visions to light that've been there in waiting since the beginning. Across Salt, you'll find a deep engagement with the bones of Half Moon Run's beginnings, but the album reaches equally into the future with songs penned during the pandemic that bear the current moment's all-permeating anxieties and the deep and universal need for hope.

Half Moon Run's ability to breathe new life into ideas that've been with them since the start has been bolstered by the vision of ascendant producer Connor Seidel, with whom the band previously collaborated on the song "Fatal Line" on Seidel's concept album '1969.' Salt was largely created at Seidel's Treehouse Studio-an idyllic escape north of Montreal where the band's sketches had space to grow and take form. Seidel encouraged the band to dive deep into their rich archives.

"While making this record, it felt as if we were boiling down a huge cauldron of musical ideas, trying to reduce it to something elemental. What we were left with was Salt," says Conner.

New dates for 2023 were announced last month. There is the North American Tour for later this year (on top of the already announced European dates) and some additional shows added in their home province of Quebec and Newfoundland. Half Moon Run are again partnering with Plus1. In Canada (including Quebec), 1$ from each ticket sale will go to Global Medic who provides humanitarian assistance to those affected by natural disasters and to refugees and persons displaced by conflict.

They empower the communities they serve by providing immediate aid, training and support. In the USA + Europe, to the Syrian American Medical Society which is a U.S.-based charity that has been actively providing medical care in Syria since 1998. SAMS supports 110 medical facilities and over 3,000 medical personnel. All dates are listed below, with the new Canadian stops are bolded and all ticket avails are noted via the band's website.

HALF MOON RUN - NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES 2023

October 24, 2023 @ El Rey Theater, Los Angeles, CA
October 25, 2023 @ August Hall, San Francisco, CA
October 27, 2023 @ Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR
October 28, 2023 @ The Crocodile, Seattle, OR
October 29, 2023 @ Spanish Ballroom Tacoma, WA
November 1, 2023 @ Royal Theatre, Victoria, BC
November2, 2023 @ Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC
November 3, 2023 @ Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC
November 5, 2023 @ MacEwan Hall, Calgary, AB
November 7, 2023 @ Coors Event Centre, Saskatoon, SK
November 8, 2023 @ Burton Cummings Theatre, Winnipeg, MB
November 10, 2023 @ Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, MN
November 11, 2023 @ Metro, Chicago, IL
November 12, 2023 @ Saint Andrew's Hall, Detroit, MI
November 14, 2023 @ The Foundry, Philadelphia, PA
November 16, 2023 @ Union Stage, Washington, VA
November 17, 2023 @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
November 18, 2023 @ Royale, Boston, MA
November 21, 2023 @ London Music Hall, London, ON
November 23, 2023 @ History, Toronto, ON
November 24, 2023 @ Kingston Grand Theatre, Kingston, ON
November 25, 2023 @ Algonquin Commons Theatre, Ottawa, ON
November 26, 2023 @ Algonquin Commons Theatre, Ottawa, ON
December 13, 2023 @ MTelus, Montreal, QC
December 14, 2023 @ MTelus, Montreal, QC
December 15, 2023 @ Salle Maurice-O'Bready, Sherbrooke, QC
December 17, 2023 @ Théâtre du Palais Municipal, Saguenay, QC
December 18, 2023 @ Grand Théâtre@ Quebec City, QC

Photo Credit Gaëlle Leroyer

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