Bill Callahan has announced a new album that’s out later this year. The title, stylized as YTI⅃AƎЯ, is the word “reality” spelled backward. YTILAER arrives via Drag City on October 14, with a vinyl edition coming next year. “It felt like it was necessary to rouse people — rouse their love, their kindness, their anger, rouse anything in them. Get their senses working again,” Callahan said in a statement about the project. See the rest of the statement, along with the tracklist and a handful of newly announced California shows, below.

Elsewhere in his explanation of YTILAER, Callahan said that there are “6 or 7” people singing on the album. He also noteed that YTILAER’s hourlong runtime is intended for absorbing in one sitting, “in case anyone wants to.” Jim White plays drums on the record, along with guitarist Matt Kinsey, pianist Sarah Ann Phillips, and bassist Emmett Kelly.

After 2020’s Gold Record, Callahan joined Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s Will Oldham for Blind Date Party, a collection of covers that featured guest appearances from Meg Baird, Bill MacKay, Matt Sweeney, and more.

Revisit Pitchfork’s 2019 feature “Bill Callahan the Family Man.”

Bill Callahan: YTILAER

$40 at Rough Trade

$38 at Amazon

YTILAER:

01 First Bird
02 Everyway
03 Bowevil
04 Partition
05 Lily
06 Naked Souls
07 Coyotes
08 Drainface
09 Natural Information
10 The Horse
11 Planets
12 Last One at the Party

Bill Callahan:

11-01 Bristol, England – SWX
11-02 London, England – Roundhouse
11-03 Leeds, England – Brudenell Social Club
11-05 Glasgow, Scotland – Queen Margaret Union (QMU)
11-06 Manchester, England – Albert Hall
11-19 Sonoma, CA – Sebastiani Theatre
11-20 San Francisco, CA – Palace of Fine Arts
11-21 Santa Cruz, CA – Rio Theater
11-22 Ojai, CA – Ojai Deer Lodge
11-24 San Luis Obispo, CA – The Poetry Church at Guild Hall
11-25 Pioneertown, CA – Pappy and Harriet’s
11-26 Los Angeles, CA – The Theater at Ace Hotel

Bill Callahan:

I wanted to make a record that addressed or reflected the current climate. It felt like it was necessary to rouse people — rouse their love, their kindness, their anger, rouse anything in them. Get their senses working again. I guess there was already plenty of anger! But we needed a better anger. To get out of this hypnagogic state. Hypnagogic rage. Disassociated rage that destroys the community and leaves only the individual eating themselves alive instead of feeding others. We were born to feed others. We have milk, breasts. We have language, tongues. We have music, ears. All to feed.

At the time it felt like we were coming out of something, getting clear of it. So I was picturing songs that would make sense to take before an audience at this crucial juncture — venturing out — where things could go either way. A reintroduction to the basics of life. Of human interaction. Face to face. A new clear vision. A new way. Which is probably just an old way we’d abandoned somewhere back there as we retreated into our screened, blindered existence.

Sometimes you forget the most basic things. The biggest things! And it just takes a little nudge to get your head back on track. I wanted sounds and words that made you feel and that lifted you up. But first there was a need to bond, to clear the air. Or to just acknowledge the air. So there is some of that on the record. I went for horns because horns are heralds, triumphs, second line funerals and just breath forced through a metal maze or amusement park slide. And I wanted voices, I wanted multiple voices, not just mine. There is too much of just mine right now. So there are 6 or 7 people singing on this record.

Listening to this record takes one hour. Ah hour sounds like a year to me these days. Taking an hour of someone’s life. I fault the internet. I fault ourselves for falling for the internet. An hour is actually lovely, nothing, a lifetime. You have to live that lifetime though in order to appreciate the hour. I’m not suggesting people must listen to this record all the way through in one sitting. It IS sequenced for that particular purpose, though, in case anyone wants to.