TRACK STAR: Elijah Wolf to Release Surprise New Album This Friday
The New York musician recorded the LP with help from Told Slant and will perform it at Pitchfork London.
Elijah Wolf has announced track star, his fourth solo album, set to arrive this Friday via his own label, Mtn Laurel Recording Co. The New York-based artist paired the announcement with a new single, you, forever. Wolf is set to perform the new album live this fall at Pitchfork London as part of his Mtn Laurel showcase.
Photo Credit: Mtn Laurel
The album follows up his previous albums and singles with collaborators Nels Cline, Sam Cohen, Photay, Robin Pecknold, and others.
Elijah Wolf grew up surrounded by the peaks of the Catskill mountains. As overseers of the small hamlet of Phoenicia, they acted as companions to the eerie underbelly of a place that seems picture-perfect to tourists and transplants. Now, having lived in Ridgewood, Queens for the better part of a decade, Wolf found himself thinking back to the place he wanted to escape as soon as he could, but this time with a bittersweet, sincere nostalgia. The towns that make us never really leave us.
His fourth album track star is an insight to the upstate traumas that are swept into the corners, a chiaroscuro that centers around community and perseverance. Like a county fair carousel, high school athletes, empty malls, dive bars and DUI's swirl across the ten songs, with Wolf's signature sincerity and textured indie-rock forming its core. Fluorescent gas stations drown out the stars, as townies reach for something bigger and more beautiful than their fate will allow.
The album was built alongside Wolf's artist-focused record label Mtn Laurel Recording Co, allowing him to find purpose after a whirlwind few years with his first two LPs working with the likes of Nels Cline and Sam Cohen. Burnt out on being a full time musician and overwhelmed with the process, Wolf went back to the beginning, removing himself from the constraints of expectation and creating for the sake of it––both in his own work, and in helping promote the art of others. Mtn Laurel artist and Florist member Told Slant helped record the LP, as Wolf swapped sprawling studios for an intimate collaboration with a trusted friend. 'The way of coming back was by way of making a label,' he says. Returning to form and in turn to himself, both Mtn Laurel Recording Co and track star are reminders that you find yourself through the people you surround yourself with. 'Making this record and learning through Mtn Laurel, I now understand what community means.'
Wolf was asked to curate a Mtn Laurel night for Pitchfork London in November, where he will also perform his new album live.
track star
1. track star
2. texaco lights
3. you, forever
4. norms
5. back down
6. heaven
7. light on
8. start driving
9. concrete
10. time passes by
The ten-song album draws on Wolf's upbringing in the Catskill mountain hamlet of Phoenicia and his years since living in Ridgewood, Queens, weaving imagery of county fairs, empty malls and dive bars into songs centered on community and perseverance. Told Slant, a Mtn Laurel artist and member of Florist, helped record the LP, marking a shift from the larger studio sessions behind Wolf's earlier albums made with collaborators including Nels Cline and Sam Cohen.
Photo Credit: Mtn Laurel
