07/21/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/21/2026 09:53
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DURHAM, NC - July 21st, 2026 : Today, Sylvan Esso announce their first new album in four years, and their first to be released on their own, on their own record label. Arriving September 11th via Psychic Hotline, Ow ∞ is a trust fall into our dystopian present, past and future: arms wide open, embracing and absorbing the pain of cities under water or on fire, and piecing oneself back together as a tactile, scotch-taped collage of memories, ephemera, Y2K-era burned CDs and backseat makeouts. Produced by Sylvan Esso's Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, Ow ∞ is also the longest the band has ever spent writing a record, yet it arrives with an intense immediacy that is messy, hellish and free, metabolizing a life of making music with people into making art that you just love.
Pre-order Ow ∞ , listen to new single "Concrete Glen" via Psychic Hotline, and watch the video: HERE
Created, reimagined and revisited nearly every day since 2022, in the woods of their studio Betty's in Chapel Hill, NC, Ow ∞ was born from a period of ceaseless experimentation, improvisation and collaboration. The result is both a technicolor totem of personal destruction, and an ecstatic invitation to party - like recent single "Hot Slob," hailed as "sweaty, snotty and hedonistically brash…an infectious and defiant ode to living messily and having nothing figured out," said The New York Times. Across the album's 12 songs, including the newly released "Concrete Glen" - weaving in a sample of "Svefn-g-englar" by Sigur Rós (a band that soundtracked much of Meath's teenage makeouts) and recounting a dizzy night out turned hypnotic and surreal - most of the tracks are Meath's first vocal takes, while arrangements and ideas are excavated, painted over and held together by the largest community of musicians Sylvan Esso have ever worked with on an LP.
Featuring six different drummers in total, as well as live guitar, bass, keys, vibraphone, woodwinds, Innato, organ, piano and electronics, Meath and Sanborn are joined by Daniel Aged (Frank Ocean, Dijon), BJ Burton (Bon Iver, Charli XCX), Matt Douglas (the Mountain Goats), Glenn Kotche (Wilco), Jake Luppen (Hippo Campus, Samia), TJ Maiani (Weyes Blood, Neneh Cherry), James Mapley-Brittle (GRRL),Buddy Ross(Frank Ocean, Bon Iver), Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes) and Joe Westerlund(Megafaun) throughout the record, filling hard drives with 5-10 songs at a time, some sticking and some not. Nothing was sacred, until everything was. As Amelia Meath says:
"One of my favorite ways of producing in general is to come up with an idea and then take out a third of it. One, it makes things interesting and exciting, but also it makes your ear ask a question. And it kind of forces the listener to be creative as well. To try to fill that space with something, which I find as a listener to be really exciting and interesting. Particularly with pop music, because it's all about fulfilling a promise. You know this melodic structure, you know, we're going to the four here. Not doing it is always the thing that makes people fall in love with a song or a person.
Living hurts forever, and then it stops. But also it's a little silly. And that's how I feel. If you're going to keep participating in the world, and in your life, you have to commit to being hurt. And if you aren't putting yourself in the way of potential hurt, you miss out on a lot of potential opportunities. So in some ways it's like a rallying cry, saying 'I'm gonna get hurt forever, and that's okay.'"
During their life as Sylvan Esso, Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn have made songs from a tightrope, a central tension of the physical and existential, cerebral and instinctual from which everything else spiraled. But in the chaos ofOw ∞ is comfort in the fact that - after multiple GRAMMY® nominations, four acclaimed LPs, nearly a billion streams and wide-ranging collaborations with everyone from Arooj Aftab to Maggie Rogers, Tyler Childers, Reyna Tropical, Remi Wolf, Moses Sumney, The Postal Service, Rostam and more - they have figured out all the avenues in which they can take control, put things out the way they want to, with the people they choose, in their own studio and through their own label. For an album that wrestles so much with the out-of-control nature of being alive, Ow ∞meets the duo at a time where, finally, they have complete control over what Sylvan Esso can be.
Ahead of the release of Ow ∞, fans can experience an early listen to the record in full at a series of listening events around the globe on September 3rd. Find the initial list of locations below, and details at sylvanesso.com.
Following the release of Ow ∞, Sylvan Esso will bring the music to a full-band tourspanning more than two dozen shows across North America and beyond in 2026 and 2027. The new line-up was previewed during a sold-out, week-long residency at LA's Sid the Cat Auditorium last month, and stops on the upcoming tour include NYC's Brooklyn Paramount, Chicago's Salt Shed, LA's Wiltern and more. See the full list of tour dates below, with tickets and information at sylvanesso.com.
Sylvan Esso and Psychic Hotline will also present the first biennial Good Moon festival since 2024 this fall, taking over four venues throughout their hometown of Durham, NC, from October 8th-10th. Anchored by three nights at Durham Performing Arts Center - two headlined by Sylvan Esso, one headlined by Tyler Childers, with special guests Meshell Ndegeocello, aja monet and Silvana Estrada - the lineup features MJ Lenderman, Rodrigo Amarante, Leenalchi, Tash LC, William Tyler & Yasmin Williams, Jacques Greene, Annie & the Caldwells, Circuit des Yeux and many more. Tickets and details are available at goodmoonnc.com.
Ow ∞ Tracklist
Entertainment & Coca-Cola
Flood Season
Hot Slob
Concrete Glen
Back Again
Ribbon
Sledge
Right to Left
Good at Pain
Jessica
On & On
Plastic Sword
Ow ∞ Listening Events | September 3rd, 2026
Mexico City - 99Recs (Roma)
Taipei - Chao Bar Record Store
Tokyo - IPPEN
London - Cafe 1001
Berlin - Unkompress
San Diego - Part Time Lover
Los Angeles - ISC HQ
New York - Mr. Melo
Chicago - Parachute
Philadelphia - Percy Sound Lounge
Portland - Favorite Neighbors
Austin - Equipment Room
Dallas - Shyboy Hi-Fi
Omaha - Oto Hi-Fi Lounge
West Palm Beach - Rust & Wax
+ More To Be Announced
Sylvan Esso Tour Dates
Jul 31 - Burlington, VT - Burlington Waterfront Park
Sep 12 - Abiquiu, NM - Blossoms & Bones
Sept 20 - Brighton, UK - Resident Music (In-Store Performance)
Sept 21 - London, UK - Rough Trade (In-Store Performance)
Oct 1 - Atlanta, GA - The Eastern
Oct 2-3 - Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
Oct 5-6 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
Oct 8-10 - Durham, NC - Good Moon
Oct 12 - Philadelphia, PA - Franklin Music Hall
Oct 14 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Paramount
Oct 15 - New Haven, CT - College Street Music Hall
Oct 16 - Portland, ME - State Theatre
Oct 17 - Boston, MA - Citizens House of Blues
Oct 19 - Toronto, ON - HISTORY
Oct 21 - Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater
Oct 22 - Chicago, IL - The Salt Shed Indoors
Oct 23-24 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
Oct 31-Nov 1 - Kakegawa, JP - Festival de Frue
Feb 19 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre
Feb 20 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theatre
Feb 22-23 - Portland, OR - McMenamins Crystal Ballroom
Feb 25 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
Feb 26 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
Feb 27 - Santa Ana, CA - Observatory
Mar 1 - Del Mar, CA - The Sound
Mar 2 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren
Mar 4 - Salt Lake City, UT - Rockwell at the Complex
Mar 5-6 - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
Mar 8 - Austin, TX - ACL Live at The Moody Theater
Mar 9 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues
Mar 11 - New Orleans, LA - Tipitina's
Mar 12 - Birmingham, AL - Iron City
Mar 13 - Nashville, TN - Brooklyn Bowl
*Newly announced dates in BOLD
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For more information, please contact Matt Hanks, Greg Jakubik or Annie Mickum at
Shore Fire Media, 718-522-7171