Devendra Banhart, Gyan Riley, and Noah Georgeson Launch New Band Hug — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Devendra Banhart formed a new trio called Hug with guitarist Gyan Riley (son of minimalist composer Terry Riley) and producer/multi-instrumentalist Noah Georgeson, the trio's self-titled debut set for September 11 release on David Byrne's Luaka Bop label.
- Banhart and Georgeson are longtime collaborators, having previously worked together on the 2021 ambient album Refuge.
- Riley and Georgeson were childhood friends who bonded when Riley was thirteen and obsessed with classical guitar; Georgeson later introduced Riley to Banhart in Brooklyn, prompting Banhart to recall: 'Everything was sparkling and I felt like a little kid.'
- Hug's lead single is 'Cow With Half Moon Parasol,' and the 11-track debut features unusually eclectic titles including 'Bathypelagic,' 'Homunculus in the Foliage,' and 'Near Death Ibiza.'
- The fall tour launches October 8 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York and runs through November 20 at Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco, with stops at MassMoCA, Walker Art Center's McGuire Theater, and Constellation in Chicago.
Why it matters: The album marks Banhart's first major new project with a named band rather than solo billing, landing on Luaka Bop — the Luaka Bop/Walking on a Moonlit Night label run by David Byrne — which signals an audience shift toward art-rock and global-experimental circuits rather than the freak-folk sphere where Banhart built his name.
Ask SkimNews
