It’s finally here! The second album from Sons of Noel and Adrian will be released on May 21st, 2012. It is called Knots and it will be released on CD by Broken Sound (alongside Forest Fire, Peggy Sue, Rachael Dadd, The Mariner’s Children), digitally by Willkommen and on glorious gatefold vinyl by One Inch Badge. The CD is already available to preorder over at the Broken Sound shop. There’s a taster video of one of the tracks below.

If you’re an interested journalist then please contact Lauren Barely at Rarely Unable here.

The band’s sophomore album sees them breaking far away from the acoustic roots of their debut. Sons of Noel and Adrian’s immersion in folk music was always more informed by guitarists like Dave Pajo, David Grubbs and Jeff Parker than by traditionalists. These influences, rooted in the city of Chicago’s pre-millennial post-rock, jazz and avant-pop scenes, are explored on Knots to their fullest. At times soft and orchestral, at times crass and loud, Knots is always infused with beauty and tenderness: soulful, taunt, honed and with a new found love of kosmiche experimentation. Knots’ expanded sonic tapestry is marshalled and woven with growing stature by SONAA’s chief song-writer, Jacob Richardson, whose meditative lyrical concepts and melodic craftsmanship mark him out as musician of genuine depth and gravitas whilst remaining as arcane and beguiling as Palace.

Rejecting notions of a fixed line-up, Sons of Noel and Adrian is more of a sprawling musical whirlpool centred around a few key members, not unlike Broken Social Scene, with whom two members of Sons toured with last year as part of their horn section. The band includes members of The Mariner’s Children, Eyes & No Eyes, and make up most of the renowned Willkommen Collective that spawned The Leisure Society, and the various members lend their talents freely to everyone from Damo Suzuki to Laura Marling.

Such selfless creative interdependence is at the heart of the Willkommen Collective and Sons of Noel and Adrian. The results of their musical co-operative have yielded an album that transcends their debut and positions them as a very unique and thrilling proposition indeed: Knots see SONAA charting new, unexplored aural terrain as immersive an experience on stage as it on record.

Also don’t forget the following shows:

April 2: CARDIFF – 10 Feet Tall   | Last.fm | Songkick | Tickets | with Winter Villains & Emma Gatrill
April 3: BRISTOL – The Fleece  | Last.fm | Songkick | Tickets | with Laish & Emma Gatrill
April 4: NORWICH – Arts Centre  | Last.fm | Songkick | with Laish & Emma Gatrill
April 5: LONDON – Bush Hall  | Last.fm | Songkick | Tickets | with Laish & Emma Gatrill
April 7: BRIGHTON – The Haunt  | Last.fm | Songkick | with Laish & Emma Gatrill

The Leisure Society have a new single out on Full Time Hobby. The video is below:

The band have two sold out cathedral dates left in support of Laura Marling before playing at the Barbican with the Heritage Orchestra on December 8th – tickets here.

Alessi’s new album is out today in America. The album features contributions from lots of Willkommen musicians. My personal highlight is a track called The Fever which is an instrumental trio of Alessi on guitar, William Calderbank (Sons, Miserable Rich etc) on piano and Emma Gatrill (Sons, Mariners etc) on the harp.

You can stream the album on Alessi’s Facebook page, visit Bella Union US to buy hard copies or visit Amazon or iTunes to download it.

Alessi has two dates left in America supporting Laura Marling before a few European dates:

27th Sept: WASHINGTON DC, MY: Sixth & I Historic Synagogue with Laura Marling
28th Sept: NEW YORK, NY: Webster Hall with Laura Marling
3rd Oct: Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS: Paradiso – Small Hall
4th Oct: Ghent, BELGIUM: Café Video
5th Oct: Brussels, BELGIUM: Witloof Bar @ Botanique
7th Oct: Paris, FRANCE: La Fleche D’Or Paris, Ile-de-France

The overflowing Stanmer House lineup has a new addition. Recently seen playing keys with Grizzly Bear, Robert Stillman‘s own music exists “somewhere between the fairground, the rural parlor, and the stars” and is influenced by the likes of John Fahey, Kurt Weill, Scott Joplin, and Maurice Ravel.

The lineup also includes The Leisure Society, Alessi’s Ark, Peggy Sue, Sons of Noel and Adrian, Laura Marling’s pianist and banjo player Pete Roe and Caroline Weeks of Bat for Lashes. The event takes place in Grade I listed stately home Stanmer House on Sunday July 5th, tickets cost just £12 from wegottickets.com or Resident Records, 28 Kensington Gardens, Brighton, 01273 606312.

The enthralling Pete Roe joins The Leisure Society, Alessi’s Ark et al on our overflowing Willkommen micro-festival bill. Pete is an amazing multi-instrumentalist who plays banjo and piano with Laura Marling, guitar techs for Maccabees and recently toured in support of Mumford & Sons. He has a unique guitar style which somehow sees separate bass, rhythm, lead and even percussions lines simultaneously flow from just two hands.

He’s an amazing performer and a great addition to the line-up. More information about the event here and tickets available for just £12 here.