While Rostam only has one solo album out to date, the dreamy 2017 effort Half-Light, he’s worked with some of the biggest names in indie music. Most notably, the ex-Vampire Weekend member was Clairo’s producer on her debut Immunity, and also worked with Haim for their recent effort Women In Music Pt. III. Returning to expand his personal catalog, Rostam shares the misty single “Unfold You” alongside a serene video.
Under a lulling beat, mesmerizing saxophone licks, and shimmering keys, “Unfold You” speaks to Rostam’s willingness to be open to a new love. The accompanying visual, directed by Rostam himself, offers dazzling landscapes set to the single.
In a statement about “Unfold You,” Rostam described how it took him many years to finish the song. Speaking about how he was inspired by Nick Hakim’s music, Rostam wrote:
“In November 2017 I played a show with Nick Hakim at Cafe De La Danse in Paris. This was the first Rostam show outside of America. I wasn’t familiar with Nick’s music but I was immediately drawn to it. Later that night in my hotel room I was winding down after the show and listening to some of Nick’s records. The song ‘Papas Fritas’ came on, it’s an instrumental track, and I suddenly found myself singing a melody over it and recorded that in my voice memos. Anyone writing songs probably has a few hundred voice memos on their phone. I kept coming back to this one though, and when I returned from a North American tour in February 2018 I booked some days at my favorite Vox Studios in Hollywood.
That’s where I first met Henry Solomon, who came in to play sax on ‘Unfold You.’ I had written out some sax lines for a few sections of the song, but others we arranged together in the studio. I wasn’t exactly sure where “Unfold You” would land. I hadn’t finished writing the song, but I continued building out the track with Nick’s ‘Papas Fritas’ as its backbone. I decided I’d let the recording process take me where it would. […] In the summer of 2016, I was sitting on a park bench on Commercial street in Provincetown, Massachusetts. I found myself in conversation with a stranger who left me with a piece of advice that has stuck with me. ‘Change is good,’ he said, ‘Go with it.’”
Watch Rostam’s “Unfold You” video above.