SYLVAN Esso 'Ow ∞' LP on Angel of Death Purple Vinyl

Label: Psychic Hotline
Release Date: 09/11/2026
Variant: Angel Of Death Purple Vinyl LP

Sylvan Esso turned a life of making music with other people into an album about making art you simply love. That's the short version of Ow ∞ (say it "Ow Infinity"), a record written over four years in the woods around Chapel Hill — the longest the duo has ever spent on one project. Most of the vocal takes here are Meath's first passes, and that rawness keeps the whole thing grounded. Sharp, sinewy and built to explode, these songs sound like they're trying to claw their way out into the room.

Improvisation fed a big share of the writing. Long hours at their North Carolina studio with guests like Glenn Kotche (Wilco), Matt Douglas (the Mountain Goats), Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes), Joe Westerlund (Megafaun), Jake Luppen (Hippo Campus, Samia), Daniel Aged (Frank Ocean, Dijon) and drummer TJ Maiani (Weyes Blood, Neneh Cherry) turned loose jams into grooves.

Ow ∞ also marks something of a first: the band sounds at ease with the fact that they run this themselves. They've worked out how to take control, release music the way they want, with the people they pick, cut in their own studio and issued through their own label. For an album wrestling with how little any of us really controls, the timing lands well.

TRACKLIST

1 Entertainment & Coca-Cola
2 Flood Season
3 Hot Slob
4 Concrete Glen
5 Back Again
6 Ribbon
7 Sledge
8 Right to Left
9 Good at Pain
10 Jessica
11 On & on
12 Plastic Sword