Lee Ranaldo & Raül Refree Share New Track And Video; New Album Out February 21

LEE RANALDO & RAÜL REFREE SHARE NEW TRACK AND VIDEO “WORDS OUT OF THE HAZE” NEW ALBUM NAMES OF NORTH END WOMEN OUT FEBRUARY 21

Credit: Ari Marcopoulos

LEE RANALDO & RAÜL REFREE have shared a new track and video from their forthcoming collaboration, Names of North End Women, out February 21 on vinyl, CD and digital platforms via Mute. Watch the video for “Words out of the Haze” here. Pre-order physical formats of Names of North End Women here. Pre-order digital formats here. The video was assembled using sequences from Oscar Fischinger’s 1938 animation, “An Optical Poem”. A groundbreaking work of early abstract animation, Fischinger’s film was made using paper cut outs and (mostly invisible) fishing line. He later went on to direct one of the sequences for Disney’s Fantasia (1940) but left the production due to artistic differences, his work uncredited. Ranaldo explains, “The images are astounding in their rhythm and color, and we are happy to re-present them in a new context for this video. Continuing the theme of re-purposing images from earlier experimental film (as also seen in the Names of North End Women video), the intent was to find interesting visual images to compliment, without illustrating, the song.” The new track is one of three lyric collaborations on the album between Ranaldo, Refree and colleague and co-conspirator Jonathan Lethem. Ranaldo expands, “the words speak, in similar abstract fashion to the images, to the complexity of interpersonal relationships - the difficulties and imperfections of communication - and the mysteries to be found in the night sky.” Names of North End Women’s release will be followed by a European tour that includes a performance at the Milton Court Concert Hall on April 7 as part of the Barbican’s music program. Full details below. MORE ABOUT NAMES OF NORTH END WOMEN Ranaldo and Refree worked together on Ranaldo’s last solo album, Electric Trim (Mute, 2017). Soon after, the pair returned to the studio to record the follow up and realized that Names of North End Women would become what Ranaldo describes as “the beginning of a new partnership, a new configuration.” For Ranaldo – a cofounder of Sonic Youth and one of the greatest guitarists of his generation as ranked by both Rolling Stone and Spin – and Refree, an artist reinventing traditional flamenco guitar (his album with Rosalía continues to grow internationally), this is an album that features tracks with little or no guitar. Instead, the duo composed using marimba and vibraphone, samplers, a vintage 2-inch Studer tape recorder and a modified cassette machine Ranaldo had previously used in performances 25 years earlier. “This record began as playing with samplers and cassette players,” says Refree, “as experimental music, musique concrete, poly-rhythms.” As the process wore on, however, their abstractions materialized into songs, their elemental rhythms, ambient hums and sampler damage revealing hidden melodies and patterns upon deep listening. Ranaldo and Refree traded melodic ideas and added vocals to the tracks, singing in addition to the spoken word pieces they’d always planned these pieces to feature. The result is an album alive with the electric crackle of experimentalism, yet satisfying as a collection of songs. Artwork by Jessi Reaves & Brad Kronz Images courtesy of Bridget Donahue Gallery Names of North End Women Tracklisting 1. Alice, Etc. 2. Words out of the Haze 3. New Brain Trajectory 4. Humps (Espiru Mix) 5. Names of North End Women 6. Light Years Out 7. The Art of Losing (feat. Hayley Fohr of Circuit des Yeux) 8. At The Forks Lee Ranaldo & Raül Refree Live April 5 – Bruges, Belgium – Chamber Music Room - Concertgebouw Brugge April 6 – Utrecht, Netherlands – De Heiling April 7 – London, England – Milton Court Concert Hall, Barbican April 9 – Paris, France – LE CENTQUATRE April 10 – Clermont-Ferrand, France – Cooperative De Mai April 11 – Nantes, France – Stereolux April 17 – Girona, Spain – Festival Strenes – Teatro Le Mercé April 18 – Avellino, Italy – Cinema Teatro Partenio April 19 – Rome, Italy – Monk Club April 21 – Ljubljana, Slovenia – Cankarjev Dom April 22 – Pordeone, Italy – Capitol April 23 – Civitanova Alta, Italy – Theater April 25 – Lausanne, Switzerland – Theatre de Vidy April 26 – Bern, Switzerland – Dachstock April 27 – Nuremberg, Germany – Z-bau April 28 – Berlin, Germany – Roter Salon - Volksbühne April 29 – Prague, Czech Republic – Palác Akropolis April 30 – Krems, Austria – Donau Festival Pre-order physical formats of Names of North End Women Pre-order digital formats of Names of North End Women Watch the video for “Names of North End Women” Watch the video for “Light Years Out” LEE RANALDO: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC RAÜL REFREE: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC MUTE: WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM