In 2024, Animal Collective’s Geologist (né Brian Weitz) decamped to visual artist Kyle Simon’s Farrington Observatory in Joshua Tree, where they, incredibly, harnessed the power of the moon to record music. That single composition is now arriving in album form called The Sirens, which is out October 16 on Outside Time. You can listening to a preview, titled “The Opening,” below.
If you’re wondering how one uses a full moon and telescope to write songs, let Simon himself explain: “The telescope is fitted with optical sensors and light-sensitive detectors called photodiodes,” he writes in the album’s liner notes. “As I rotate the scope towards different objects in the night sky, it collects light from stars, the moon, and planets. This raw light is converted into an electrical signal via an analog amplifier and then sent to Brian’s modular synthesizer rig as control voltage — a signal format that can modulate pitch, filter, rhythm, and other sonic elements in real time.”
The Sirens marks Geologist’s third album of 2026, following January’s solo output Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights? and May’s Avey Tare collab Croz Boyce. Tare and Geologist will kick off a tour next month, with a September 8 show in Asheville, North Carolina.
