Calgarian indie experimentalist Astral Swans and noise-pop multi-media maven Chad VanGaalen have joined forces for a Split EP, featuring three songs of each to be released on October 13 by Astral Swans independently and on lathe cut vinyl via Red Spade Records. The Split EP is the first in a series of sonically stranger releases from Astral Swans continuing into 2024. Birthed from a residency at a downtown hotel in Calgary came a set of experimental pop songs affixed to a moody techno sound-space that sound unlike anything else bearing the name Astral Swans.
Chad VanGaalen and Matthew Swann (Astral Swans) met in the 00’s as mutual fans of each other’s music, DIY outsider artists in a burgeoning oil city, and this split hearkens back to their scrappy, improvisational roots. VanGaalen produced Swann’s first album as Extra happy Ghost!!!, the ravishing Modern Horses. VanGaalen “we went through his vault a little” as Swann describes it, carefully selecting his self-recorded songs to put on the split including a cut featuring Alex Edkins (METZ, Weird Nightmare) on broken electronics, the mysterious ‘Frogman.’
Astral Swans has toured North America, Europe, China and Japan performing everywhere from house shows to festival stages, Swann has shared bills with a laundry list of artists including Angel Olsen, Feist, Malcolm Mooney (CAN), Grimes, Julie Doiron, Colin Stetson and & more.
The Split EP is the first in a series of sonically stranger releases from Astral Swans continuing into 2024 and carrying on an orbit that attracts some of the best artists in Canada to rally around him. Vancouver troubadour Dan Mangan first signed Astral Swans to his Arts & Crafts imprint Madic Records, which released the debut, All My Favorite Singers are Willie Nelson. Scott Munro of Calgary post-punk legends Preoccupations co-produced the follow up Strange Prison, and ASTRAL SWANS (self titled), was co-produced between Swann, Brock Geiger (Reuben and the Dark, Etamine), and Paul Chirka (Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra) with vocal contributions from the legendary Julie Doiron, guitar by Cassia Hardy (Wares) and a host of others.
