Yasmin Williams blew minds with 2021’s Urban Driftwood; now comes the follow-up. After announcing her signing to Nonesuch with last year’s Aoife O’Donovan collab “Dawning,” the fingerstyle guitarist has revealed the details for Acadia, her third LP. It’ll be out in October, and its tracklist has both “Dawning” and today’s new single “Virga,” an exceptionally pretty, new-agey folk ballad that makes everyday life feel like awestruck reverie.

Williams explains:

A virga is a meteorological phenomenon where streaks of rain hang from a cloud and evaporate before reaching the ground. I related this sentiment to how it feels for me to be an artist in an industry that doesn’t seem to always value art and reflection. I eventually realized that I needed to learn how to thrive “in virga,” so to speak … to learn to be okay with feeling slightly suspended in time, with my hopes and dreams dangling in an environment I have no control over, never fully having my feet planted on the ground.

She also shared this statement on the album title:

Acadia has several meanings: a place of rural peace and pastoral poetry (Italian), a refuge or idyllic place, (Greek and Italian), fertile land (Mi’kmaq), a place of plenty (French) … all of this relates to the ethos of this album. The songs are seeds I planted, and the seeds grew into the album, Acadia: a place of peace, a place where creativity can blossom, a place where everyone can fit in together and collaborate effectively, a place where the fruits of my own labor in music can fully flourish without judgment or prejudice. One of my visions for this record was to expand the potential for current folk music to encourage collaboration across various genres. Blurring those somewhat arbitrary lines has been a natural tendency for me since I started writing music at twelve years old and Acadia is a full circle moment.

Below, hear “Virga,” which features contributions from the Boston indie-folk band Darlingside.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Cliffwalk”
02 “Harvest”
03 “Hummingbird”
04 “Virga”
05 “Sisters”
06 “Dawning”
07 “Dream Lake”
08 “Nectar”
09 “Malamu”

Acadia is out 10/4 on Nonesuch.