HUG, the trio of Devendra Banhart, Gyan Riley and Noah Georgeson, has released their new single, “Catatumbo,” from their debut self-titled collaborative album out September 11, through Luaka Bop. In conjunction, they announce their debut live performance as HUG which will take place the evening of Thu. Aug. 20th during sunset on the lawn of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright Hollyhock House in Los Angeles. The album was written and recorded organically, without a grand plan, and is full of the childlike wonder that these three bring out in each other. Though the album came together in three weeks, there are hints scattered across the tracks that they’ve been working towards this collective for much longer.
Today’s “Catatumbo” is described by The New York Times as “[arriving] on pinging acoustic guitars accompanied by croaking frogs, and gradually takes on percussion, a bass line and the sounds of flutes and songs, somewhere between reggae and gamelan music”—contains a loop that Noah and Devendra first created twenty years ago, back when they were living together in Venice Beach. It was a fragment of a song they never knew how to finish until now. In the track’s final moments, voices can be heard, just barely, crying out, “Well I went down…!” They leave us with another unfinished fragment—perhaps a signal of future projects to come.
Photo Credit: Stephen Hoffmeister
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