International alt-pop maestros Yumi Zouma have shared "Astral Projection" the latest single from their latest full-length, Present Tense – out this Friday, March 18 AND it's Stereogum's Album of The Week. The track is joined by the third and final installment in a remarkable trilogy of official music videos directed by filmmaker Alex Ross Perry (Pavement, Soccer Mommy, Vivian Girls, Sleigh Bells), premiering today via YouTube; the full trilogy – which also includes "In The Eyes Of Our Love," and "Where The Light Used To Lay," – had its world premiere earlier this week as part of Brooklyn's Nitehawk Shorts Festival 2022 and can now be viewed in its entirety.

“’When I let it come for me / I feel free’” – Astral Projection is about leaning into bad feelings and the mixed results it brings, says singer/keyboardist Christie Simpson. “Learning to sit with the reality of a relationship not working out as you hoped. Looking towards the future and knowing there will be others, there will be better times, but sitting in the present moment, trying to make peace with that. ‘Hold me in your arms / I know this wouldn’t last / I know I shouldn’t feel safe, but I do.’”

Josh Burgess likens the band’s songwriting process to gardening, “Someone brings in a seed and through collaboration, it grows into a song that is vastly different from its original form.” Their latest record is the product of those efforts, a work Christie Simpson describes as “a gallery wall displaying these different moments in each of our lives. A process of curation, revisiting the past and making it relevant to the present.”

Remote and in-person sessions in studios in Wellington, Florence, New York, Los Angeles, and London all played a role, and Yumi Zouma brought in new collaborators from different disciplines to broaden their sound. Studio recordings of drummer Olivia Campion were incorporated into every song, while pedal steel, pianos, saxophones, woodwinds, and strings were played by friends around the globe who were able to lend their talents and support. The band enlisted multiple mixers in Ash Workman (Christine & The Queens, Metronomy), Kenny Gilmore (Weyes Blood, Julia Holter), and Jake Aron (Grizzly Bear, Chairlift), and recruited the mastering expertise of Antoine Chabert (Daft Punk, Charlotte Gainsbourg) for the first time. 

There’s a defiance heard throughout Present Tense, a refusal to bend to what might seem fated, communicated not only through lyrics but in the boldness of these arrangements, metamorphosing between tracks without ever losing momentum. Dedicated to an embattled past, it's the band’s offering to a tenuous future: “To 2020, and the memory of all that was lost,” they write in the album’s liner notes. “Kia Kaha.”

Pre-order a limited edition Early Bird vinyl on Ivory Rose and catch the band on a North American run beginning April 7 at Atlanta, GA’s Terminal West and then continuing through early May. Special guests include NoSo (April 7-15), JORDANN (April 16-17), Mini Trees (April 18-25), Noble Oak (April 28), and Beauty Queen (April 29-May 6) - tickets onsale now.