For a decade now, Brooklyn’s City of the Sun have balanced bold post-rock soundscapes with gentle elements of ambient Americana, all driven by an underlying ethos of groove. Their newly released, Phil Ek–produced album Under the Moon further expanded their instrumental palette with elements of Latin folk and blues among other vibrant new colors, with opener “Un Disparo al Corazón” setting the scene with gently picked acoustic guitar before the full band enters the picture with an Explosions in the Sky–like swell. “It’s about personal loss and change, and the beginning of the story,” the group shares. “Every time we play it, we connect on a different level.”
Surely it was easy for the band to connect with the song on a new level when they performed the cut in front of a vast desert landscape littered with massive sandstone structures while passing through Moab, Utah. The epic backdrop for their “Neighborhoods” session is a perfect match for the song’s contemplative grooves. “Playing in different locations around the world has been a big part of our story since the beginning,” the group adds. “There is something transcendent, almost otherworldly, about playing our instruments in a remote place. We were lucky to collaborate with an old friend of ours named Kylor [Melton], with whom we’ve worked in the past, to create an experience out in the deserts of the Southwest. Being in the desert at dawn playing this song was truly a magical experience."
Check out the video below, and listen to Under the Moon here.
