A Greek detour inspires Westerman’s breezy, transportive third album, Will Westerman’s third album was inspired in large part by his “failed attempt” to move from London to the Greek isle of Hydra. In a couple of instances, it’s quite literal: the rolling, synth-powered “Adriatic” sounds like someone aboard a schooner, riding the waves and in awe of where they call home. It’s also an album he made almost immediately after his second, “An Inbuilt Fault”, a record he feels he took too much time with.
As good as his previous album is, the looser, breezier nature of the quickly recorded “A Jackal’s Wedding” feels like a breath of fresh seaside air in comparison, reflecting the brief five weeks he spent in Hydra.
Produced by Björk collaborator Marta Salogni, it features drummer Stella Mozgawa and Big Thief’s James Krivchenia (who also produced “An Inbuilt Fault“). Guitar-based songs like “Mosquito” and “Nevermind” are lovely, but it’s the synthesizer creations — including “PSFN” and “Weak Hands” — that are the most transportive.
Westerman has since relocated to Milan; we’ll see how the fashion capital of the world influences his next chapter. Westerman’s third album release, “A Jackal’s Wedding”, became a document of leaving and arriving, on going transformation, and the liminal spaces between shadows and the lights that cast them. The collaboration with producer Marta Salogni (who mastered “An Inbuilt Fault“) created a woozy and dreamier work than the two previous Westerman albums. Recorded in a 17th century mansion, converted into an art space on the island of Hydra; the album reflects the chaos and limits of the space and uses it as a collaborator.
Westerman‘s new album A Jackal’s Wedding is out November 7th and here’s the second single from it
Meanwhile, Westerman has shared a new single from the album, “About Leaving,” which is both melancholic and groovy. “I wrote the lyrics in different places: London, America and Greece,” he says. “They were always written in a fleeting way, and that became an animating principle of what kind of imagery is contained. There are different ways of looking at that, right? You can look at that from the perspective of loss, or you can look at it from the perspective of opportunity, or you can look at it from the perspective of excitement or fear. I tried to play around with all of those things in an enveloping way. I was reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner over and over and I had an image of this person on the sea, not understanding where they’re going and not in control of anything, but unlike in the poem, finding that exciting and enjoying it for what it is.”
“A Jackal’s Wedding“, out November 7th, 2025 on Partisan Records
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