Back in 2015 and 2016, when the National were in the middle of the long stretch between Trouble Will Find Me and Sleep Well Beast, the band’s various members went off and explored some new projects. For Scott and Bryan Devendorf, that was LNZNDRF, their trippy/kraut-y group with multi instrumentalist Ben Lanz (pictured above). A few years later, LNZNDRF has added both a new EP (last year’s “To A Lake”) and added a new member (Beirut/Grizzly Bear associate Aaron Arntz). And now, they’re also about unveil a second album.
LNZNDRF’s second outing is called, simply enough, “II”. Like with the material from LNZNDRF’s past releases, II originated when the group convened in Austin in late 2019 for a week of improvised writing sessions, described as “a mass hypnotism, somehow both thunderous and trance-inducing.” Over the course of last year, the group worked those jams into songs, but II doesn’t sound like it’s going to lose any of the psychedelic glimmer that’s characterized LNZNDRF so far. “These songs seem to come from the formless, translucent holograms that appear behind your eyelids just before sleep sets in,” the band said in a statement. “The visions you swear you’ll remember in the morning but never do.”
“These songs seem to come from the formless, translucent holograms that appear behind your eyelids just before sleep sets in,” the band explained via press release. “The visions you swear you’ll remember in the morning but never do.”
The album – aptly named II – follows up the band’s 2016 self-titled debut as well as the 2020 EP To A Lake. It’s songs aim to “reflect the current dystopia as much as they beckon the Big Mystery awaiting us, when we finally bust through this barrier.”
From LNZNDRF’s new album ‘II’ out January 29th their second album, continuing an all-star project featuring Bryan and Scott Devendorf of The National as well as Benjamin Lanz (The National, Beirut) and Aaron Arntz (Beirut, Grizzly Bear).
The Fat Angel Sings 