Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Moses Sumney, Perfume Genius & Sharon Van Etten Reimagine Richard Youngs' Sapphie on New Album This is a Mindfulness Drill

Today, Jagjaguwar fully enters the second phase of their 25th Anniversary with the release of brand new album This is a Mindfulness Drill. Featuring music from Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, vocals from Moses Sumney, Perfume Genius and Sharon Van Etten, the artwork of Lonnie Holley and a transfixing Meditation Version by ambient artist Emily A. Sprague, the uncanny endeavor serves as a full-length tribute to Richard Youngs' cult classic, Sapphie. Each new collaboration reimagines Youngs' solo compositions as expansive arrangements that are simultaneously settling and stirring, trance-like and transcendent. Over unexpected, explosive undulations of horns, guitar and bass, Perfume Genius "sings in a rapt falsetto, trading Youngs' solitude for immersive depths" (New York Times), Sumney offers "soft but arresting harmonies" (The FADER) and Sharon Van Etten delivers a remarkable interpretation of Youngs' plaintive performance, rising and falling across the 13-minute "Graze Of Days."

Watch the new visual for Hypnotic Brass Ensemble's "The Graze Of Days" (feat. Sharon Van Etten) and experience This is a Mindfulness Drill in full, including a limited edition opaque black-and-white LP and exclusive cassette of Emily A. Sprague's Meditation Version: https://xag.jagjag.co/mindfulness-drill 

When Jagjaguwar reissued Sapphie on CD in the year 2000, the record label called it "one of the most important unheard treasures of the last half decade of the 20th century." As they mark their 25th Anniversary through a quarterly celebration of collaboration, community and the superhuman artists who define their history, Sapphieremains a centering force. Like each of the four installments in the Jag Quarterlyseries, the title "This is a Mindfulness Drill" stems from an oft-used mantra that has guided various eras of Jagjaguwar's world-building work. In this case it means to be relentlessly present, like a lonely traveler in a foreign country or a listener discovering Sapphie for the first time. 

Ahead of This is a Mindfulness Drill's release, Jagjaguwar partnered with mindfulness platform Open to develop guided, deep-listening meditations set to "Soon It Will Be Fire" (feat. Moses Sumney) and "A Fullness Of Light In Your Soul" (feat. Perfume Genius). As JAG25 continues through the remainder of the year, more partnerships and two totally new phases will be announced soon.

Revisit the inaugural edition of Jag Quarterly on Dilate Your Heart - which paired the poetry of Ross Gay with new music from Bon Iver, Mary Lattimore, Angel Bat Dawid, Gia Margaret and Sam Gendel - and stay updated at the XagXaguVar zine.

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