Crammed Discs is pleased to release Megafaun, the follow-up to MEGAFAUN's critically acclaimed, Gather, Form & Fly, which Pitchfork called "ingeniously ramshackle" in a rave review.

To assign the music on Megafaun a genre would be a futile; the band has long been hailed for its diverse musical conversations, but this record creates a unique language all its own. The album's 14 tracks range from raw, unhurried rock & roll to cacophonous percussive blasts, from brassy instrumental free jazz to mournful delta blues. The band—Joe Westerlund and brothers Phillip and Bradley Cook—recorded the album late last year at April Base in Fall Creek, Wisconsin, the studio of former bandmate Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), and produced it themselves along with BJ Burton.

The album opens with Real Slow, a bold and emotional statement about the group and its roots. From there the record unfolds in a million directions, moving beyond the back porches of Americana into wholly new and uncanny sonic territory, where gorgeous, earthy melodies blossom into unsettling time signatures and swirling electronic soundscapes.

MEGAFAUN's roots reach back to Eau Claire, WI, USA the hometown of all three members. With Justin Vernon they formed the band DeYarmond Edison and moved to North Carolina. That band broke up in 2006, but from its ashes rose Bon Iver and MEGAFAUN, two of the most critically acclaimed indie projects in music today. Over the course of two previous LPs and one EP, the band has toured the United States & Europe with The Mountain Goats, Bowerbirds, Akron/Family, and more. SPIN raved that MEGAFAUN's last full-length, Gather, Form & Fly, was "epic," while Mojo extolled that it "provoke[s] wows and crikeys of crooked pleasure."

The prestigious Duke University recently commissioned MEGAFAUN to create and perform Sounds of the South, a concert based on the rural folk songs collected by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax during his early travels. The trio reimagined the music through their own brand of experimental Americana and collaborated with Richmond's Fight the Big Bull avant-jazz ensemble, acclaimed songwriter Sharon Van Etten, and Vernon on the project, which was presented for three nights in Durham and again at Cincinnati's MusicNOW Festival to raves.

MEGAFAUN will tour this fall check out the dates here.