Today, Tortoise has released Touch, which is the first new album from the groundbreaking group since 2016, is on all streaming platforms through International Anthem and Nonesuch Records. The band also shared an animated video, by Selina Trepp, for the focus track “Rated OG” and as a whole, each colorful and animated scene visually matches the musical theme through water color.
Also today, Tortoise will collaborate with the Chicago Philharmonic for the first time in special concert at The Auditorium in Chicago, where they will perform Tortoise songs new and old with arrangements written by Sean O’Hagan (High Llamas), Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes), Paul Von Mertens (Brian Wilson) and the band’s own Jeff Parker.
As noted in a preview of the show by Chicago Magazine, “to make their music work with 30 or so members of the [Chicago] Philharmonic, the band naturally needed new arrangements…‘Some of the stuff we’re getting sent, there are new parts entirely,’ band member Dan Bitney says. ‘It never really occurred to me that they’d be adding melodic elements or these abstract kind of stabs. I’m just in awe of the whole thing.’” John Herndon of the band added: “Other than high school, I’ve never performed with a large orchestra… I am excited to just be immersed in that sound world.”
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