Ava Luna have been a band in some iteration or another for a few years shy of a decade and, with three full-length albums under their belt, miscellanies are bound to build up around the margins of their career. And a band as wildly experimental as they are doesn’t come together without, well, a lot of experimentation. So the group has released Takamatsu Station, a compilation of rarities, B-sides, demos, and more chronicling their time together. It includes some unreleased cuts like “Stages” and “No F,” both for a 7-inch that never was, a cover of “I Love It” that was recorded for Rookie magazine, and early sketches of songs that would later appear on their albums. Check out the whole thing below.

Here’s band member Carlos Hernandez putting the release in some context:

There were other Ava Lunas before this, and there was Ava before that. But our Ava Luna began with a promise that I made to Nathan in the summer of 2006, in Takamatsu, Japan. Nathan and I agreed that we would devote our twenties to a rock and roll band and compromise for nobody and be as weird and sad and joyous as we wanted. And when our band toured the world, we’d return to Japan and play a show right there, where we sat, on the roof of Takamatsu Station.

Our Ava Luna fulfilled most of that promise, and now that my twenties are over here is my birthday present for everybody. Recordings of me and some of the best people I’ve known in my life, fooling around, piecing things together. Some of these things are old, some are newer, some are unfinished. This isn’t an album, there’s no story here, at least not the type that we’d calculate. It’s the story of a bunch of friends making songs for lots of years, holed up some place or another, optimistic, quixotic.

Up til now Ava Luna has been a beautiful promise, and after now it can be something different. With these songs, everything we’ve ever recorded is on the internet now. That’s our gift to you. happy birthday everybody

- Carlos

The Bandcamp page for the album has notes on each of the individual tracks describing their origin. You can download it from there as well.