Nobody writes a sighing twilight guitar ballad like the Clientele, and thanks to pure serendipity, we’re about to get a whole new batch of them. Music For The Age Of Miracles, the UK band’s first new album in eight years (seven if you count the 2010 mini-album Minotaur), came to pass when frontman Alasdair MacLean encountered Anthony Harmer, an old friend and musical collaborator from the ’90s.

Harmer, it turned out, was now living three streets away from MacLean and had become a master of the santoor, an Iranian instrument something like a dulcimer. When they began jamming together again, Harmer asked to arrange MacLean’s new songs, and eventually MacLean realized he had a new Clientele album on his hands — something he wasn’t sure would ever happen again since he’d spent the last few years raising a family and releasing music with partner Lupe Núñez-Fernández under the name Amor de Días. So he called up bandmates James Hornsey and Mark Keen and they got busy recording.

Our first preview of the results is “Lunar Days.” It’s a typically lovely midtempo swoon evoking the magic hour in London’s Russell Square, which is also depicted on the Music For The Age Of Miracles cover art. Listen below and join me in my steadfast belief that we’re lucky to have this band back in our lives.

Tracklist:

01 “The Neighbour”
02 “Lyra In April”
03 “Lunar Days”
04 “Falling Asleep”
05 “Everything You See Tonight Is Different From Itself”
06 “Lyra In October”
07 “Everyone You Meet”
08 “The Circus”
09 “Constellations Echo Lanes”
10 “The Museum Of Fog”
11 “North Circular Days”
12 “The Age Of Miracles”

Music For The Age Of Miracles is out 9/22 on Merge. Pre-order it here.

CREDIT: Andy Wilsher