Devendra Banhart shares new track, ‘Nun’
American singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart has shared his latest single, ‘Nun’.
With all the open-ended qualities of a great Brian Eno track mixed together with the delicate bueaty of a Sufjan Stevens song, ‘Nun’ finds Banhart running circles as he tries to make sense of the world around him. With a simple drum loop and some bright keyboard lines surrounding him, Banhart doesn’t seem to be in any rush to find an answer.
“‘Nun’ was written in a Nunnery in Northern Nepal,” Banhart shares in a statement. “It’s a simple metaphor: we can run to something, run for something, run out of something… an archetype with plenty of elasticity.”
‘Nun’ is the latest preview of Banhart’s upcoming 11th studio album Flying Wig. It will be Banhart’s first studio album since 2019’s Ma. Flying Wig was produced by Cate Le Bon, continuing Banhart’s potent series of collaborations that have included Mykki Blando, Helado Negro, and Swans’ Michael Gira over the years.
In the time between album releases, Banhart has largely focused on his art career. That doesn’t mean he had fully stepped away from music. Back in 2020, Banhart released a cover of Marc Bolan’s ‘Scenescof’ for the T. Rex frontman’s tribute album Angel-Headed Hipster.
“I was completely in love with Marc Bolan, from John’s Children to Dandy in the Underworld and everything in between,” Barnhart said. “I remember the feeling of freedom I got from ‘Scenescof’… ‘I don’t need anyone to dictate all my fun smile your smile and then run’…. That line gave me the courage to carve out a little bit of fantasy in my life back in my late teens. But now, the song will be inextricably linked with mourning, it was the last time I was in a studio with my dear dear friend Hal Willner.”
Check out the lyric video for ‘Nun’ down below. Flying Wig is set for a September 22nd release.
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