Devin Townsend has provided yet another update on his upcoming project, Puzzle. The musician has been sharing his progress for the album throughout its recording process, and plans to release Puzzle sometime within the year. The album will be accompanied by film and graphic novel, and will focus on ambient sounds. Previous announcements related to the album have hinted that it may be released sometime this spring, however an official release date has not yet been provided.
The creation of Puzzle has acted as a way for Townsend to reflect on the pandemic and ongoing quarantine. Along with the updates pertaining to the album, Townsend has revealed that Puzzles is currently being mixed, however the process has proven more “difficult” than he had initially thought.
“Ahh… didnt get done. =/ Mix will continue for a few more days,” Townsend said. What a savage bunch of sessions…mixing this is very difficult.”
“Puzzle summarized the last year for me, but i see things on the horizon that are very different. Couldn’t get there without this though… it’s been a heavy year, for sure. Please take care.”
“I hope people enjoy this… it’s odd, but it’s also weirdly awesome…”
While none of the tracks on the album have yet been released, Townsend went on to say that one song from Puzzles wound up meaning more to him than nearly anything else he had previously written.
“There’s also a track on here that hits me harder than almost anything I’ve ever done… maybe it’s just fatigue speaking though 🙂 but it wrecks me…”
Townsend has described the album as including a lot of “emotionally intense material.”
“… I guess that’s why I’m excited to be finished as well. It’s very hard work on emotionally intense material. You’re kind of immersed 24/7… made good progress today though.”
“It’s supposed to be an ‘audio movie’ in 2 parts… you just put it on and let your imagination take over… so it’s very colorful. And it goes between dark and light.”
“The intention is to make stream of consciousness ‘orchestrated’ (if that makes any sense…)”
“Also, for all the chaotic nature and ADHD type music this has produced, it’s required the most subtle mix I’ve been involved with to date… either it’s ‘right’ or it’s totally wrong. With only a slight margin for error.”
Townsend has been incredibly busy throughout the pandemic, hosting a podcast series where he details the creation of his former albums, creating Puzzle, writing the television score for new BBC children’s series, as well as creating two other albums, Snuggles and Lightwork. Townsend had also been working on “Quarantine Project,” which included a lrelease of the song “EQUINOX (demo)” featuring Che Aimee Dorval.
The artist also shared a live album, Devolution Series #1 – Acoustically Inclined, Live in Leeds, last week on March 27. His upcoming solo album will be titled Lightwork, and will lean away from the ambient sounds he has been experimenting with throughout quarantine and returning to melodic hard rock and metal.
Photo credit: Raymond Flotat
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