The mysterious young duo ear have not been a band for a long time, but there's already a whole lot of energy and fascination surrounding the project. The team of Jonah Paz and Yaelle Avtan met and formed at Bard College, and they recorded their 2024 debut track "Nerves" on an iPhone at the college library. They've got a whispery, tingly, evocative sound that tends to draw people in. Stereogum contributor Eli Enis has been all over the ear beat on his essential Chasing Fridays newsletter, and he's referred to the duo as both "laptop twee" and "cloud-rock." It's great culty internet music, and we'll soon learn if it can be something more than that.
After dropping a few singles, ear quietly self-released The Most Dear and The Future, which I guess you'd call an album, back in September. (It's eight songs in 16 minutes, so it's the closest thing to an album that they've put out yet.) More recently, ear put out "Ne Plus Ultra," our favorite song of last week. Now, ear have announced a new album that's set to come out next week, and it'll be their first effort for an actual label.
The album is called Rumspringa, after the Amish rite of passage where young people get to do all the things forbidden for people of their culture. It's coming out on A24 Music, which makes total sense. Thus far, the indie film distributor's music arm has mostly focused on putting out soundtrack music, but it also signed former bar italia member Mark William Lewis and put out his self-titled album last year. This kind of shadowy internet cult music fits right in with its brand identity.
We don't have a tracklist or a new single from Rumspringa right now, but the album is out 5/29 on A24 Music.
