According to Oscar Wilde, “life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” but Quindar will have you know that sometimes life is art: super awesome, historical, space noise art. That’s the intent of Wilco pianaist and keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen’s side project with art historian James Merle Thomas. The duo have come together to combine historical research with music and performance and utilize archival audio and video in order to create synchronized songs and projections. The project’s deep roots in visuals and history makes their upcoming gig at the Philadelphia Museum of Art all the more exciting (as well as a stop at Eaux Claires Festival and Solid Sound Festival, which is Wilco-curated).

Quindar will release their debut LP Hip Mobility mid-July and have just come out with their first single, “Twin Pole Sunshade For Rusty Schweikart.” The song is spaced-out and synthy, the result of carefully curated archival collection with help from the National Air And Space Museum, USC School Of Cinematic Arts, and the National freakin’ Archives, y’all. This album isn’t quite history set to music, but rather history as music. The duo even got their name from Quindar tones, as in those transmission beeps heard during early Apollo space missions (think walkie-talkies, but in space).

“Twin Pole Sunshade For Rusty Schweikart” is a groovin’, sometimes vaguely ominious, nearly six-minute jam that somehow soothes me and makes me fear oblivion. The track name-checks former American astronaut Rusty Schweikart, who is a thematic reference throughout the new album. Listen to the track below.

Here’s the tracklist:

01 “Twin Pole Sunshade For Rusty Schweikart”
02 “Wembley”
03 “Body Techniques”
04 “Italian Conversation”
05 “Choco Hilton”
06 “Arabella & Anita”
07 “Oranganus”
08 “Honeysuckle This Is Houston”

And the cover art:

Hip Mobility is out 7/14 via Butterscotch Records. Pre-order it here.