The National’s twins, Aaron and Bryce Dessner, are teaming up with their sister Jessica and composer Rebekka Karijord to form the band Complete Mountain Almanac.
The group is set to release their debut album, also titled ‘Complete Mountain Almanac’, on January 27th 2021 through Bella Union.
In celebration of the announcement, the band has released the lead single from the album ‘February’. The songs on the album are inspired by each month of the year and have been crafted to reflect the impending doom of climate change.
Jessica, a dancer and artist, has put her own personal experiences into her work on the album, especially following her diagnosis of breast cancer. The lead single ‘February’ is a baroque-pop song that has been described as a reckoning with the physical changes Jessica experienced due to cancer and how they affect her life.
“February is a song that began as a reckoning with the profound physical changes wrought by breast cancer and how they threaten to dismantle every aspect of life, and yet, somehow the spirit rises, remains constant, immutable, a force, like nature,” Jessica said in a statement.
Vocalist Karijord added, “To me, February is like an ancient myth. A road trip dance, moving between vulnerability and resilience. It journeys through layers of odd meters, restlessness and mystery, and then lands in a musical landscape of acceptance and clarity.”
