Noctunes

Willis Earl Beal signed with XL's Hot Charity imprint in 2012. Willis Earl Beal died in New York City. Despite the release of two critically well-received albums on XL - Acousmatic Sorcery, a collection of his early home recordings, and a fully orchestrated studio album he recorded in Amsterdam called Nobody Knows-he was a mess. After ending his contract with XL, Beal went to live in the woods, and began an artistic transformation entirely of his own design, from rough-edged outsider-art provocateur to the kind of mysterious crooner one might expect to haunt the outskirts of Twin Peaks. Beal's development played out over two self-released EPs and a full-length album, and then Beal built the patient, ambient-leaning Noctunes. The album's twelve songs are moving and meditative, thoroughly soaked with mournful synthesizer strings and simple lyricism that Beal says is intentionally minimalistic. His new music is shockingly original, utterly confident, and as ephemeral as Beal himself. He levitates above definition, concerned only with self-discovery and truth-seeking. 'I know it sounds falsely altruistic,' he says. 'But I think a simple voice like mine can serve as an example of some kind of freedom.'