For the past 12 years, Catherine McCandless and Stephen Ramsay have been making music together as Young Galaxy. That era is coming to an end. As Exclaim points out, Montreal synth duo has announced its impending hiatus after the release of one final EP this Friday.

The EP is called Snow Leopard and comprises songs from the sessions for this year’s Down Time. Along with the announcement, they’ve shared a video for one of its tracks, the propulsive, house-infused “Future.” It’s directed by Hotel Sport. The other two songs on the EP are “Snow Leopard” and “Backwards Love,” which we can expect to be the last new Young Galaxy songs for the foreseeable future.

In her message, McCandless explains that the hiatus is a chance for both musicians to “go inside, stir it up, and regenerate.” She continues, “We both wish to focus on solo work, interdisciplinary collaborations, and ways of presenting content beyond prescribed music industry limitations.” She does not explain why their final band photo only has her in it! Guess they’re starting the hiatus a little early.

Check out “Future” below, where you can also read the band’s departure note.

Here’s the message announcing their hiatus:

Young Galaxy has been the singular site of all our creative coordinates since 2006. Generatively, as source, as the conduit for all our content, and as the bloom of each album cycle, it is the flower we have presented to all those who want to listen, see, and appreciate.

YG has had a linear movement until now with Stephen and I as it’s central driving force. And to satisfy our need to change and be challenged, each album bloomed differently than the last with loved and varied people to help present it. But now the two of us see that it is a matter of survival, personally and creatively, that we transform our singular process from its linear movement to multiple processes / branched movements.

Young Galaxy will go on hiatus so that we can go inside, stir it up, and regenerate. There will be many more Ramsay and McCandless blooms but they will have new and varied origins, conduits, and presentations. We both wish to focus on solo work, interdisciplinary collaborations, and ways of presenting content beyond prescribed music industry limitations.

Most of all, we want to thank you, the fans, for your support. To all who have listened, come to our shows and kept in touch, you have truly been the reason we have continued to love doing this and believe in it, through the ups and downs of these past 12 years. Thank you again.

We will have lots to announce in the coming months. We will see you soon.

caterpillar to butterfly

Snow Leopard is out 9/28. Does anyone else chuckle to themselves when the band refers to themselves as YG?