Irish Post-Rock outfit God Is An Astronaut are building on their 20 year history by putting together a live studio album, The Beginning Of The End, due out July 15, 2022 via Napalm Records. Recorded at Windmill Lane Recording Studio in Dublin, Ireland on October 3, 2021, the anniversary album features “modern transformations” of all of the songs from their debut album, 2002‘s The End Of The Beginning.
The transformations focus on each track‘s evolutionary changes throughout the band‘s years of live performances. Following previously released first single “From Dust to the Beyond”, now the band have shared a new music video for “Coda”.
Bassist Niels Kinsella explains:
Coda was written late in December 2002, the first draft of “The End of the Beginning” had already been released. In 2003 we added “Point Pleasant” (inspired by the Mothman Prophecies) and Coda (inspired by the beauty of the cosmos) to the album. We had some challenges to overcome to perform “Coda” live – the original version was primarily programmed and had large parts that were reversed which was a challenge to recreate in a live performance. We also took the opportunity to expand on the song writing with more variation in the melody.
In addition to these live expansions, technical advances have been applied to each track. Originally limited to just a keyboard sequencer and an Akai S3000 sampler on The End Of The Beginning, 20 years later on The Beginning Of The End, the band brings more experience and equipment to the music and songs.
Niels Kinsella adds:
When we recorded the The End of the Beginning we only had limited equipment; we couldn’t even record full live performances. The Beginning of the End gave us the opportunity to perform the whole album live and allowed us to bring more feeling and expression to the music and songs. We’re very excited to share this with everyone.
The album’s cover was created by the band in collaboration with returning artist David Rooney. Featuring a war-torn concert hall and a piano, the art is “a defiant message reflecting that the power of music transcends war and time”.
The Beginning Of The End will be available in these varying formats in various territories:
-1CD Digisleeve
-2LP Gatefold BLACK
-2LP Gatefold GOLD – limited to 300
-2LP Gatefold MARBLED ORANGE TRANSPARENT & BLACK – limited to 500
-Shirt & 2LP Gatefold in Black
-Shirt & Digisleeve
-Digital Album
