IDM pioneer Kieran Hebden, better known as Four Tet is teaming up with producer William Tyler for a brand new full length album titled 41 Longfield Street Late ‘80s. The album is set to release on September 19th, 2025 and is being teased with an expansive 11 minute long ambient rendition of Lyle Lovett’s country standard “If I Had A Boat”
The track is droney, dreamy and appropriately acoustic with just a touch of the haunting desert soundscapes conjured by the American Southwest. It’s far from faithful as a cover but as rich, textured and progressive as anyone would expect output from these two legendary producers to be.
Both artists spoke a little bit about the process of creating the album with Kieran Hebden stating “We discussed references for an album and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Fennesz, and AM oldies radio stations came up. But the main influence was found when we discovered a shared deep connection to ‘80s American country and folk music – artists like Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, and Joe Ely. My father was a huge fan of this sound and through my teenage years I heard this music most days and was taken to see loads of performances. The guitar player David Grissom made a huge impact on me as a kid learning to play. It’s not an influence that I usually mention but it’s in there more than I realize and must have helped me develop my sound and ideas.
It turns out that William’s father was working in Nashville as a songwriter during this period and actually knew people like David Grissom. So William had grown up with this music as well and knew all the stuff that I was talking about and we both felt that it had shaped our styles.
Our idea for the album was to make music that focused on that influence and brought it to the front of our awareness. We’d record the guitars in the studio, exploring styles and sounds from that music, and then I’d take it all home to my computer and bring it into my other world. A cover of the Lyle Lovett song, “If I Had a Boat” was the most literal pull from this ‘80s country sound. We also recorded long improvisations around chords, patterns and tones from songs we remember from growing up. The Lyle Lovett cover ended up over 11 minutes long.”
William Tyler also expounded on how the duo came to such a dynamic and engaging sound by saying “I think we both in our own specific ways want to recontextualize a lot of music that we grew up with, regardless of the genre, and I think that’s what this album reflects. It’s a lot of nostalgia but it’s also very forward focused. I don’t even know what genre I’m supposed to be in at this point, but I trust Kieran and I love what we’ve done together. He’s become a dear friend and I can’t wait to see what’s ahead for us.”
Listen to the new track here:
Fans can listen to the whole album when it comes out September 19th, 2025. See the tracklist here:
41 Longfield Street Late ‘80s tracklist:
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- If I Had a Boat
- Spider Ballad
- I Want an Antenna
- When It Rains
- Timber
- Loretta Guides My Hands Through the Radio
- Secret City
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