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The Mountain Goats, led by singer-songwriter John Darnielle, have built a prolific and influential career in indie music since the early 1990s.
Known for their vast discography of storytelling and literary lyricism, Darnielle is regarded as one of the most distinctive voices in modern songwriting.
Their work has a deep emotional resonance with their avid and loyal fanbase, built over the past 30 years.
Today, we find Darnielle awoken from a dream where he titled an album Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan, with no sense of sonic direction in the dream, then proceeded to write the entire album based off of this arbitrary title.
Produced by the Mountain Goats’ multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas, who also co-wrote several songs, the record is embracing, inviting, and overflowing with melody and orchestration that extends far beyond the boundaries of their past work.
“In the night of May 29, 2023, I had a dream.
Waking from it, I transcribed what I could remember of it into the note-taking app I keep on my phone.
The note reads: “through this fire across from peter balkan #dream.
It was the title of a work, not sure which form.” The next time I sat at the piano to see if I had ideas, I got the notion of writing a work that proceeded from its title, and that tried to make real the dreamlike grammar of that title.
This album is that work.
Since its protagonist shares a first name with our longstanding bassist Peter Hughes, who bid farewell to the sea in 2024, this album is dedicated to him – he who served aboard the good ship Mountain Goats for so many years: may the fire always keep you warm, and may your nights in its light be as numerous as the grains of sand on the beach.
Special thanks: to Jerry Marotta and all at Dreamland; to Ryan Matteson and all at Ten Atoms; and to every port of call along the endless ocean way, sea-facing or no, landlocked or otherwise.”
