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Andrew Bayer announces double album 'Duality'
Andrew Bayer's fourth studio album, 'Duality'. Arriving in two parts this year on Anjunabeats.
Enigma, polymath, visionary, DJ, producer, musician, artist: Andrew Bayer has been a cornerstone of Anjuna for over a decade. He's been responsible for the most experimental and ambitious artist albums on Anjunabeats. His 2011 debut ‘It’s Artificial’ merged glitch-hop, electronica and prog house, while on 2013’s ‘If It Were You, We’d Never Leave’ he pushed the envelope further with a critically-acclaimed journey of electronica and sunny, instrumental hip-hop. 2018's ‘In My Last Life’ wove the emotive songwriting of Ane Brun and Alison May into a modern alt-pop masterpiece.
In amongst this, Andrew has knocked out countless cutting-edge trance bangers to power his famed DJ sets – 'Super Human' (with Asbjørn), 'Magitek', 'Once Lydian', 'The District'... the list goes on. Respected as a true visionary and a headline talent within the trance world, as well as one of its only openly proud and vocal LGBTQ+ acts, his DJ sound has energised Ultra Music Festival, Above & Beyond’s Group Therapy (including a Madison Square Garden show), ASOT, Creamfields and clubs across the world.
So what's next? Andrew's been hard at work on the follow-up to 2018's 'In My Last Life' for the best part of three years. The result is 'Duality', a double album celebrating all aspects of his immense artistic talent. Over to Andrew to explain the album's concept...
Since day one, I have always struggled with how to present myself. I love making these experimental home listening albums of electronica and indie sounds, but I also love DJing and making trance bangers. On my last album, I had to remix it in full after it was released to make the worlds fit. This time around, I wanted to capture all the breadth, depth and tension within that duality under one single project.
On 'Duality', Bayer is joined by an eclectic cast of collaborators old and new. ‘Duality’ pt. 1 explores Bayer’s passion for downtempo and indie-pop, while ‘Duality’ pt. 2 takes on his forward-thinking trance and progressive sound. Both are tied by Bayer's unique vision, a shared sensibility and same group of collaborators.
Drawing on electronic pop, indie songwriting and modern classical, ‘Duality’ pt. 1 opens with ‘No Silence’ featuring songwriting from cult Icelandic band Vök.
One of many LGBTQ+ collaborators across the project, Danish singer-songwriter Asbjørn brings his technicolour style to two twisted pop masterpieces in the brilliant ‘American Boy’ and the dramatic, string-laded epic ‘Equal’ - which closes 'Duality' pt. 1.
Leading up to it is ‘Under Pressure’ with Anjunadeep’s rising star OLAN and ‘Matriarch’ with new talents Red Dragons, while ‘4/15/10 11:15AM - Volcano’ and ‘Thank You For Being With Us’ provide a moment of instrumental reflection, reminiscent of Andrew’s breakthrough 2013 LP ‘If It Were You, We’d Never Leave’.
On ‘Duality’ pt. 2, Andrew takes the energy (and BPMs!) up a gear, kicking off on the dark vocal prog groover of ‘Midnight’ (with Alison May). Red Dragons add their heavenly tones on ‘DNA’, before Bayer’s take on bass-lead electro with ‘Greater Chances’ (with OLAN).
A favourite from recent DJ sets, ‘On Tape’ takes things into epic peak time prog trance territory. ‘I Would’ (with Alison May and Grandfather Machine) offers a beautiful downtempo moment before ‘Break The Rules’ (with Kaleena Zanders) offers an uplifting, Pride-powered take on the isolation of queer identity.
‘Duality’ is the true follow up to my first album ‘It’s Artificial’. It is by far my most raw and honest work, and I can’t wait to celebrate the album around the world with you all on tour.
‘Duality’ pt. 1 lands August 12, with pt. 2 following on October 28 - 'Duality' is also available to pre-order on triple vinyl via the Anjuna Music Store.
