Damon Albarn has announced a new solo album called The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows. Though he’s kept plenty busy with Gorillaz over the past few years, it’s Albarn’s first solo album since 2014’s Everyday Robots. It was originally conceived of as an orchestral piece inspired by Icelandic landscapes — Albarn teased it last year — and over lockdown Albarn crafted the music into proper songs.

“I took some of these realtime, extreme elemental experiences [of Iceland] and then tried to develop more formal pop songs with that as my source,” Albarn explained to NME. “I wanted to see where that would take me. Sometimes it took me down to Uruguay and Montevideo. Other times I went to Iran, Iceland or Devon. With travel being curtailed, it was kind of nice to be able to make a record that put me strangely in those places for a moment or two.”

Listen to the album’s title track below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows”
02 “The Cormorant”
03 “Royal Morning Blue”
04 “Combustion”
05 “Daft Wader”
06 “Darkness To Light”
07 “Esja”
08 “The Tower Of Montevideo”
09 “Giraffe Trumpet Sea”
10 “Polaris”
11 “Particles”

The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows is out 11/12 via Transgressive. Pre-order it here.