Devin Townsend is Working on a New Album Called The Puzzle
Devin Townsend is always creatively busy, always scheming up new ideas, always machinating what’s next. What ever happened with that $10 million symphony about penises and vaginas he promised us? Dunno — maybe a victim of Covid — but right now he’s working on a different new album titled The Puzzle, tentatively due out in spring 2021.
The Puzzle began its life in early October as a less formal project Townsend was going to release right away, but has since morphed into a video presentation to go along with it and a full-fledged album he’s labeled “the follow up to Empath,” his 2019 release.
On October 9, he explained:
“Ok so: been hyper inspired making this bizzare project over the past few weeks called ‘Puzzle’ . it’s basically done, but the video that accompanies it (which is how I’d like it to be taken in) has had the opportunity to get some great touches added, so I’m ive decided to release it as soon as the videos done instead… (maybe 10 days…) It’s sort of an ambient thing I guess, though really orchestrated… it’s one of the most cathartic things I’ve done in years. It came out in a fury… so much data in such short time :) I’ll keep tweaking it until the release because I’ve enjoyed the process so much and maybe you’ll like it too. It’s a trip. Thanks Travis for providing the perfect counterpart to what I’ve been hearing.”
Then, yesterday, November 9, he said through a series of tweets that the project has since evolved:
“So ‘The Puzzle’ has turned into the follow up to Empath, unexpectedly… release in Spring I’m hoping
“I see it like powaqquatsi or something… or like those old pink Floyd laser light shows… it’s a soundtrack to an undefined (as of now) story
“I tend to get shit for divulging too much information on Twitter, but it helps my process to see how things feel once I’ve announced them, sometimes it results in a change of plans just by verbalizing it.”
First of all, who is giving Devin shit for divulging too much information on Twitter? Whoever it is, cut that out! We love Devin’s Twitter dumps.
More importantly, Empath was a fantastic record, so more in that vein is certainly welcome. This is all still seems quite tentative, though, and the plans have changed a lot already so don’t be surprised if that happens again. In either case, it’s likely we’ll have new Devin to look forward to in some form or other next year… fun!
Devin has been keeping busy with a series of virtual live shows and podcasts since quarantine began in March.
