Former Galaxie 500 members Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang — who perform as the duo Damon & Naomi — announced the release of their first studio album since 2015, called A Sky Record. The album features the Japan-based electric guitarist Michio Kurihara, with whom Krukowski and Yang recorded when they visited the country in November 2019 — shortly before the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Krukowski and Yang said the record is a tribute of sorts to a BBC radio program called the Shipping Forecast, which has provided weather information for boats around the UK since 1911. Krukowski spoke about the single “Sailing By” in a statement, saying:
“‘Sailing By’ is also the title of a light classical waltz that’s played every night shortly before the 1am end of the broadcast day on BBC Radio Four, followed by the ‘Shipping Forecast’ (and then ‘God Save The Queen’!). The Shipping Forecast is simply the weather forecast for the sea around the UK. But it’s also a mesmerizing list of place names (‘Viking’ and ‘Tiree’ are examples) and slightly coded information about wind direction, etc — it has its own language. But for some reason, Naomi and I found ourselves listening to it almost every night during lockdown… It comes on just as we’re usually cooking dinner, which is how we stumbled on it… and then this marker became important to us, even though (or because?) it’s a report about conditions for places we couldn’t possibly visit…”
Listen to Damon & Naomi’s dreamlike new song “Sailing By” above.
A Sky Record is out 8/6 via 20-20-20. Pre-order it here.