Devin Townsend’s New Album, Puzzle, Is Nearly Finished
Devin Townsend has been working on a new album called Puzzle since at least October of last year. The album began its life as a less formal project Townsend had planned to release right away in a similar fashion to the myriad quarantine recordings he’s published, but — Devin being Devin, his creative spirit unstoppable — it soon morphed into a full-fledged album, together with a full video component, that he’s described as “the follow up to Empath,” his 2019 release.
In a Twitter dump early this morning (late night for him, most likely), Devin shared some more details about Puzzle and said it’s nearing completion, suggesting that our first taste of music from it will be arriving soon and describing the project as “an ‘audio movie’ in 2 parts.”
Posting across multiple tweets (condensed below), he said:
“Hope you’re doing ok :)
“Finishing a project before you become a different person is very important. sitting on music too long rarely works, I find.
“‘Puzzle’ summarized the last year for me, but I see things on the horizon that are very different. Couldn’t get there without this though… it’s been a heavy year, for sure. Please take care.
“I hope people enjoy this… it’s so odd, but it’s also so weirdly awesome…
“There’s also a track on here that hits me harder than almost anything I’ve ever done… maybe it’s just fatigue speaking though :) but it wrecks me…
“…I guess that’s why I’m excited to be finished as well. It’s very hard to work on emotionally intense material. You’re kind of immersed 24/7… made good progress today though
“It’s supposed to be an ‘audio movie’ in 2 parts… you just put it on and let your imagination take over… so it’s very colorful. And it goes between dark and light.
“The intention is to make stream of consciousness ’orchestrated’ (if that makes any sense:..)
“Also, for all the chaotic nature and ADHD type music this has produced, it’s required the most subtle mix I’ve been involved with to date… either it’s ‘right’ or it’s totally wrong. With only a slight margin for error”
If we’re to understand that Devin is close to wrapping up mixing, it’s unlikely we’ll see the album released before fall, whatwith vinyl production timelines being what they are at the moment. Which would mean we could start hearing music in the summer, potentially. To say nothing of all the production involved in the album’s visual element, which Devin hasn’t elaborated on… is that nearing completion as well or no?
In other Heavy Devy news, Townsend recently revealed that he composed the score for a new BBC children’s series, entitled Colours. Last October he released Order Of Magnitude – Empath Live Volume 1, a live set recorded in London in December 2009.
