KUTX at Home: Sylvan Esso

North Carolina’s Sylvan Esso has just given the world its new album - “Free Love” – and as usual the duo’s timing is perfect, and its art multi-layered.

The multiple entendre in Sylvan Esso’s 3rd studio release, “Free Love” arrives when what the world needs now is love sweet love, unconditional and free. It also mirrors the free-wheeling sound of its ten songs, songs that pair complex emotions with accessible beats and melodies.

In this KUTX AT HOME conversation, singer and co-songwriter Ameila Meath expands upon her statement about “Free Love”: “It's a record about being increasingly terrified of the world around you and looking inward to remember all the times when loving other people seemed so easy, so that you can find your way back to that place.”

Though produced before the current Covid-19 pandemic, Meath’s description of the “Free Love” could have been made today. The Grammy-nominated duo (who visited Austin for SXSW in 2017 and Austin City Limits Festival in 2018) timed the album’s first single “Ferris Wheel” to coincide with summertime (“August in the heat, sweaty in the street”) while the newest emphasis track “Frequency” is perfect for autumn, replete with a Moses Sumney-directed video that shows off Meath’s inspiring dance moves.

Amelia Meath and her partner-in-crime Nick Sanborn have now released “Free Love” into the world, with all of its dualities. So its not surprising that it was conceived as a two-sided vinyl record, five songs on side one, the other five on the flipside. And until we can see Sylvan Esso perform on the flipside, we can hear them here. - Jody Denberg, KUTX host

Producer: Deidre Gott

KUTX 98.9fm is the Austin Music Experience