The sixth album from Animal Collective founding member Noah Lennox (aka Panda Bear) Buoys, was co-produced and co-mixed by collaborator Rusty Santos in Lennox’s adopted home of Lisbon, Portugal. The album features Lennox’s bright, sincere voice along with his beatific approach to melodic structure and vocal phrasing, with miles of space surrounding it, a guitar and a few textured samples fleshing out the dubby sparseness and undercurrent of speaker-limit-pushing sub-bass low-end. Animated by their ongoing interest in contemporary music production techniques, it retains a deep layer of experimentation coursing through its hyper-modern production – a hallmark of Panda Bear releases that will feel intimately familiar to fans of Lennox’s decade-plus body of work.

Asthmatic Kitty Records is an independent record label that was co-founded by Lowell Brams and his stepson, singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens, in 1999. Since its founding, AKR has released albums by a variety of artists, including Lily & Madeleine, My Brightest Diamond and Helado Negro, and is currently home to Sufjan Stevens, Angelo De Augustine, Denison Witmer and The Welcome Wagon. 

Asthmatic Kitty was named after Sara, an orange and white tabby who wandered out of the woods pregnant and starving near Holland, Michigan in 1994. For fourteen years she brought joy as a beloved friend to Lowell, enjoying a happy life despite her initial hardships. Her asthma improved after moving west to New Mexico and Wyoming, where she lived out her days as an asthmatic kitty in name only.

a fine group of scholars looking to share their findings with the world

n_balow is following