According to Theprp, Devin Townsend has announced a new five-part documentary series about his new upcoming release, The Puzzle. Part 1 of 5 is titled, “Making The Puzzle,” and can be found below. 

In Part 1, Townsend talks in a calm, yet attention-grabbing voice about the creative process of making his album in relation to the time period that was 2020 and 2021. He talks about how COVID threw his creative process off the loop that it was used to.  Townsend said, “I had assumed that my life would continue as it had been. I would make a record, go on tour, come home, write again. Wrinse, wash, repeat.” But Townsend found himself having to cancel the tour he was currently on because the world had shut down. He had to find different ways to navigate the creative process of being an artist, like “Live streams, podcasts, twitch streams, youtube videos, making live albums and trying to write. Solutions, you know?”  

After Townsend talks about his struggle to pivot in an already tenuous music industry, he focuses more on trying to capture the emotions of the time period he was living in on The Puzzle. Yet it was very challenging for him: “High anxiety whilst in pajamas.” Townsend talks about his young infatuation with ambient music, and throughout the first part of the documentary, there is mysterious and emotional ambient music playing underneath his voice. Townsend calls it “watercolors of sound,” and talked about how he explored his interest in ambient music in his creative process on the album. As a whole, Townsend stresses that The Puzzle strives to encapsulate the entire pandemic period. 

Along with this project, Townsend is also recording a new album, Lightwork, scheduled for a Spring 2022 release. He’s teaming up with Rage Against The Machines’ GGGarth Richardson who is producing on the project. Earlier this year, Townsend also announced and released the second album of his Devolution Series #2, Galactic Quarantine. The project was released on June 25. In March he released the first installment of the album, Devolution Series #1, Acoustically Inclined, Live in Leeds.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat