Just last week, Devin Townsend announced that he’d release his new album Empath on March 29.
It’ll arrive on CD, 2LP/CD, on digital and streaming platforms and as a limited edition 2CD, which will feature bonus material via InsideOut Music.
He also revealed that he would shortly be issuing a series of documentary videos that would “outline everything from the gestation of the idea to the actualisation of it, through all the existential ups and downs that went on.”
Now he’s released part one – and it’s different to what you might expect. Rather than the usual footage from the studio and interview clips, part one titled Thesis takes the form of a phone conversation between the Canadian musician and Mike Zimmer about the beginnings of Empath and the themes it contains.
Townsend says: “The theme of the album is starting to appear as monsters and animals playing together, or evil things and good things just existing together without being at war.
“It’s about those two things to have their voice and then observing what it is that they’re trying to say and then making a document about that process.”
Check out the full video below – which also features a rotating cat!
Townsend is joined on Empath by artists including Steve Vai, Chad Kroeger, Anneke Van Giersbergen, Morgan Ågren, Anup Sastry, Samus Paulicelli, Nathan Navarro, Elliot Desagnes, Ché Aimee Dorval, Ryan Dhale and the Elektra Women’s Choir.
Devin Townsend: Empath
1. Castaway
2. Genesis
3. Spirits Will Collide
4. Evermore
5. Sprite
6. Hear Me
7. Why
8. Borderlands
9. Requiem
10. Singularity Part 1 – Adrift
11. Singularity Part 2 – I Am I
12. Singularity Part 3 – There Be Monsters
13. Singularity Part 4 – Curious Gods
14. Singularity Part 5 – Silicon Scientists
15. Singularity Part 6 – Here Comes The Sun
Devin Townsend 2019 solo acoustic tour
Mar 07: Delhi Piano Man Jazz Club, India
Mar 08: Mumbai Levi’s Lounge, India
Mar 30: Helsinki Savoy-teatteri, Finland
Mar 31: Stockholm Sodra Teatern, Sweden
Apr 01: Oslo Edderkoppen, Norway
Apr 02: Copenhagen Bremen Theater, Denmark
Apr 04: Berlin PassionsKirche, Germany
Apr 05: Warsaw Stodola, Poland
Apr 06: Prague La Fabrica, Czech Republic
Apr 07: Munich Freiheiz, Germany
Apr 09: Cologne Kulturkirche, Germany
Apr 10: Hamburg Grunspan, Germany
Apr 11: Haarlem St-Bavokerk, The Netherlands
Apr 24: London Bush Hall, UK
Apr 25: London Bush Hall, UK
Apr 26: Bristol St George’s, UK
Apr 27: Leeds City Varieties, UK
Apr 29: Edinburgh Jam House, UK
Apr 30: Birmingham Glee Club, UK
