David Grubbs & Taku Unami to release Failed Celestial Creatures on Empty Editions, premiere new track “Constellation of Sand”

Okay. So: David Grubbs had news reported by us just over two weeks back, and Taku Unami was last featured on Tiny Mix Tapes a few years ago. But both artists that hold the same special place in many-a-heart among TMT readers, regardless of the frequency in which they grace our pages. So, any day we can announce a new collaborative album by Grubbs and Unami — AND premiere one of its tracks to top it off — well, to coin some new nonsense: today is damn-near cardiovaspectacular!

Recorded by Unami in Kyoto in August of 2017, Failed Celestial Creatures will be out next month through Empty Editions. The Berlin-run record, publishing, and ephemera imprint of Hong Kong-based Empty Gallery has previously issued stellar sets like Eli Keszler’s Last Signs of Speed (December 2016) and Intervivos by Jean-Luc Guionnet and Daichi Yoshikawa (February 2018). Primarily influenced by Japanese novelist Atsushi Nakajima’s existential folktales and an exchange of recommended reading between Grubbs and Unami, Failed Celestial Creatures is as lovely and literate as you would expect from two artists that revel in being as audaciously off-piste as can be — in the best possible way.

But just when you thought the best couldn’t get better: today, the duo is also premiering the captivating, quiet crystalline blues of “Constellation of Sand,” exclusively on TMT. Set your heart aflutter with a simple click down below, and be sure to keep an eye fixed on Empty Editions for Failed Celestial Creatures, which will be available digitally (and as a limited-to-500-copies LP pressed on our favorite gram weight: 180!) on May 11.

Failed Celestial Creatures tracklisting:

01. Failed Celestial Creatures
02. The Forest Dictation
03. Constellation of Sand
04. Threadbare 1
05. Threadbare 2
06. Threadbare 3
07. Threadbare 4

More about: David Grubbs, Taku Unami