Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien has announced that he will release his second solo album, Blue Morpho, through his new label, Transgressive, on May 22. He's also shared a visualiser video for the album's title track.
Blue Morpho is O'Brien's first solo release to bear his full name. His debut solo album, Earth, was released under the EOB title in 2020, just as the pandemic hit. Having waited for a suitable gap in Radiohead's busy schedule to record his first set of solo songs, the impact hit O'Brien hard, also acting as a catalyst for the music on Blue Morpho.
Taking a cue from his Radiohead pal Thom Yorke, who told him a secret key to the craft was being a good librarian - cataloguing ideas when they happened to find and revisit later, so the psych-led folk and prog adjacent cimematic sounds of the new album evolved, at first in his own London studio and then through his spiritual connection to nature in the Welsh countryside and his beliefs in the possibility of healing.
The deeply personal album has been produced by Paul Epworth (Paul McCartney), and features Shabaka Hutchings on flutes and with composer Tõnu Kõrvits, with whom O'Brien bonded over their mutual admiration for the classicist Arvo Pärt, arranged strings performed by the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.
An accompanying short film, Blue Morpho: The Three Act Play, which premiered at SXSW yesterday, will be released alongside the album.
Blue Morpho is available on CD, cassette, LP, indies exclusive Metamorphosis Edition LP (orange vinyl) and artist store exclusive Chrysalis Edition LP (cream vinyl). A limited edition blue 7" of the Blue Morpho single is available as part of the LP album bundle on the artist store while stocks last.
Ed O'Brien: Blue Morpho
1. Incantations
2. Blue Morpho
3. Sweet Spot
4. Teachers
5. Solfeggio
6. Thin Places
7. Obrigado
