Conner Youngblood - Cheyenne (Japan Edition) (2018)

Following the praise around his The Generation of Lift EP and a number of critically acclaimed singles, Nashville-based multi-instrumentalist Conner Youngblood is back to announce his long awaited debut album Cheyenne due via Counter Records. Along with the announcement, Youngblood shares a striking visual for his first single off the new project, "The Birds of Finland".

Comprised of 13 tracks, Youngblood's debut album is the culmination of two years of extensively seeing the world, resulting in a record that involves travel and nature, but also the grounding aspects of the people Youngblood has encountered along the way. Whether it's what Youngblood humbly puts down as "musical ADHD" or sheer talent - Cheyenne is the work of a musical polymath. Where most musicians are relatively happy with picking up a guitar and sailing away on a few chords, Youngblood can be found darting from one instrument to the next. Cheyenne features no less than 30 different instruments - a harp, a bass clarinet, a tabla, and more - all of which are played by Youngblood on a record featuring no guests.

While his sound is definitively his own, his debut takes cues from an array of artists including multi-instrumentalists Sufjan Stevens and Elliott Smith as well as the beautiful melodics of singer-songwriter Moses Sumney and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. Youngblood's music has been championed loudly by Zane Lowe who proclaims him "a brilliant artist" and has received resounding support from Radio 1's Annie Mac as well as BBC 6 Music's Lauren Laverne and Gilles Peterson. Since The Generation of Lift EP he has played shows across the globe supporting the likes of Janelle Monae and touring with Angus & Julia Stone, Milky Chance and SOHN, he performed to a rapt crowd at Field Day festival in London earlier this month and released several collaborative singles with singer-songwriter Nylo leading the Observer to recently proclaim Youngblood as their "one to watch".

The visual accompanying "The Birds of Finland" was directed by Johannes Greve Muskat and was shot in Finland, where he eventually traveled after completing the song. Youngblood shares a little about the concept and how it all came together, noting "I had always been in love with the idea of bird watching and had always wanted to go to Finland. It just took me writing the song first, to eventually do both of those things. Once we got the camera and a rental car, we basically made up a route across Lapland-from Finland to Norway-and tried to capture everything we encountered along the way. It was incredible and incredibly cold."