Belgian post punk five-piece Whispering Sons have announced the release of their third studio album ‘The Great Calm‘, and have aired their new single “Cold City”.
The album was recorded in over a total of four weeks, mixed by Claudius Mittendorfer, and mastered by Laurens Grossen, the follow-up to 2021’s Several Others, will be out on February 22nd via [PIAS] Recordings. Pre-order it here.
The band decided to self-produce this record together with Bert Vliegen, who had been the engineer on both ‘Image’ and ‘Several Others’ and became a band member after he took over on bass in 2021. With Bert’s expertise as a producer and a determined Whispering Sons, having greater creative control paid off. The recording of ‘The Great Calm’ became a true collaboration, in which every band member could express something of themselves, and which ultimately brought the band closer together.
‘The Great Calm’ is less dark than ‘Several Others’ and less grand than ‘Image’. Yet that typical Whispering Sons identity is still inherent in every song, as the band never strays far from their raw energy and emotion. The record might be more uplifting and playful, but the ominous undertone is still lurking.
New single “Cold City” is as icy as its title suggests. Describing a desire so unattainable, it feels like a nostalgic song, albeit a nostalgia for something that doesn’t even exist yet. “We settled on the form pretty quickly”, singer Fenne Kuppens explains, “the real challenge was to find the right sounds to carry the feeling of the song.” By layering synth upon synth and adding lots of texture, Whispering Sons created a song that’s small and fragile, but very rich in atmosphere.
Check out “Cold City” below along with the album’s artwork andd tracklist.
Whispering Sons ‘The Great Calm’ Tracklist:
- Standstill
- Walking, Flying
- Cold City
- Dragging
- Something Good
- Still, Disappearing
- The Talker
- Balm (After Violence)
- Poor Girl
- Loose Ends
- Oceanic
- Try Me Again
