Instrumental prog group Outrun the Sunlight stream new album ahead of release

A Vast Field of Silence LP out 12th November

Chicago instrumental progressive quintet Outrun the Sunlight have streamed their stunning new album A Vast Field of Silence a day early.

Released 12th November, you can listen to the album in its entirety here: https://youtu.be/gvQa3IEjAEQ

Guitarist Austin Peters comments: “This record has been four years in the making and we are so excited to finally share it. These songs have followed me through a very transformative period of my life. They’ve helped reveal fears around my instinct to create, and my joy in fulfilling that creation. I feel grateful for the people, especially the past and present members of this band, who have walked down parts of that road alongside me. Now it’s something I feel ready to let go of and give away. As always, this album is best listened to in a quiet space on your best set of headphones.”

A Vast Field of Silence pre-orders:

Physical pre-order: https://www.athousandarms.com/collections/outrunthesunlight
Digital pre-order: https://outrunthesunlight.bandcamp.com/album/a-vast-field-of-silence

A Vast Field of Silence is the Chicagoans fourth LP, and four years in the making. The thematic record is a wordless concept album, based around a recurring melody appearing throughout. Most clearly stated in the album opener ‘Awareness’, the beautiful theme is typical of Outrun the Sunlight, an unusually cinematic and compositionally-heavy group in the genre.

Although anchored to the theme, A Vast Field of Silence is a satisfyingly surprising record, one that is a journey of a listen. Going beyond simply instrumental progressive, the band incorporate elements of acoustic ambient, jazz, post-rock, and metal. Bearing comparisons to Cloudkicker, The Contortionist, and Russian Circles, A Vast Field of Silence is Outrun the Sunlight at their best.

The band have a huge depth and range of musical talent at their disposal: Kyle Kunkler (keys) is a professional dance piano accompanist (ballet, modern, and more) and composer, and custom-coded a majority of the synths heard on the album. Luke Angle (drummer) is a professional music instructor, from big-band jazz to math rock via country & western. Phil Kalas (bass) is also a composer, under the name Asleep In The Stars, while guitarists, Cody McCarty and Austin Peters formed the group in 2011, and have known each other since playing together in high school bands from 2008. Austin, aside from Outrun the Sunlight, has also practiced embodiment meditation since 2017, and is the founder of “Simple Being”, which produces recorded meditations with voice and ambient music.

With forming in 2011, the band released both Architecture of the Cosmos EP and debut LP The Return of Inertia in the same year. Signing with Rogue Records America in 2012, the duo re-released The Return of Inertia (Vocalist Version) which included vocalists from around the world, plus two bonus tracks. In 2014, the addition of drummer, Pedro Villegas, and bassist, Connor Grant, brought the band to the stage, and they released their second album Terrapin also on Rogue Records. In August 2015, following the release of Live at Electrical Audio EP, the group toured in the east coast United States with Native Construct (Metal Blade Records) and Wings Denied.

In 2016 Outrun the Sunlight went on to perform on Chicago internet music series, Audiotree, releasing the live album Outrun the Sunlight on Audiotree Live. They then released Red Bird independently in 2017, their third LP, the first instance that the group performed together on an album. A band not content to rest, they then released a live in-studio record, Emerge, in January 2021.

With the Covid-19 interruption and introduction of a new drummer, Outrun the Sunlight’s newest LP has eventually been four years in the making, from first conception ‘til release – but well worth the long wait.

Outrun the Sunlight are:

Austin Peters – Guitar
Cody McCarty – Guitar
Phil Kalas – Bass
Kyle Kunkler – Synth + Keys
Luke Angle – Drums