Andrew Wasylyk announces new album, shares single featuring Gruff Rhys
Irreparable Parables will also feature guest spots from Kathryn Joseph, Stuart Murdoch, Saya Ueno and more
After a brief teaser last year with the single ‘First Moonbeams Of Adulthood’, Andrew Wasylyk has confirmed details of his new album, which features guest spots from a number of the UK music scene’s indie royalty.
Titled Irreparable Parables, this is the first Wasylyk album to favour vocals, with six singers on board. The first is Belle And Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, who appears on ‘Private Symphony #2’, Wasylyk said of the contribution: ‘It was everything that I was looking for and more. But this is Stuart Murdoch. Of course he’s going to make something incredibly beautiful and thoughtful.’
Other guests include Saya Ueno from Japan’s Tenniscoats, Peter Brewis from Field Music, Molly Linen, Kathryn Joseph and Gruff Rhys. The latter vocalist appears on ‘The Cold Collar’, his vulnerable keen telling ‘a satirical tale of an unexpected visitor’. That song was released today with an accompanying visualiser. Listen below.
Wasylyk himself also sings on one track, though claims that ‘a throat infection and touch of pitch-shifting’ have altered his singing in a way that even he, having fallen out of love with his own voice, ‘finds acceptable’. Instruments used in the making of the album include brass and woodwind, a six-piece string section, guitar, bass, drums, vibraphone, Mellotron, Fender Rhodes, tape loops, synthesisers and percussion. The strings were arranged by the cellist and long-term collaborator Pete Harvey.
The last time we interviewed Wasylyk, he told us: ‘Collaborating’s got so many health benefits. If someone wants to work with me, it always comes as a bit of a shock. I’m not quite sure how to deal with it, other than being utterly humbled. I’m ensconced in my own world half the time just building ideas up from scratch in the studio alone; I think it’s important to put your head out the window and remember that there’s a world out there and that there are other folk doing really brilliant things. It’s important to feel that rippling effect.’ Read the full interview here.
Irreparable Parables tracklist:
1 ‘Private Symphony’ (featuring Stuart Murdoch)
2 ‘The Cold Collar’ (featuring Gruff Rhys)
3 ‘Love Is A Life That Lasts Forever’ (featuring Molly Linen)
4 ‘First Moonbeams Of Adulthood’
5 ‘Road To The Amber Room’
6 ‘Hachi No Su’ (featuring Saya from Tenniscoats)
7 ‘In Portmanteau’ (featuring Field Music)
8 ‘Irreparable Parables’
9 ‘Spectators In The Absence Of God’ (featuring Kathryn Joseph)
10 ‘Soul Enters The Ocean Sun Climbs Out The Sea’
Andrew Wasylyk’s 2026 UK tour dates:
Tolbooth, Stirling, Tuesday 3 March
The Lemon Three, Aberdeen, Wednesday 4 March
Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh, Thursday 5 March
St Mackintosh Church, Glasgow, Friday 6 March
Marryat Hall, Dundee, Saturday 7 March
The Attic, Leeds, Sunday 8 March
Pan-Pan, Birmingham, Tuesday 10 March
The Lantern Hall, Bristol, Wednesday 11 March
Rich Mix, London, Thursday 12 March
Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle, Wednesday 13 March
Irreparable Parables will be released on Clay Pipe Music on Friday 6 March; tickets for Andrew Wasylyk’s tour are on sale now; main picture: Tommy Perman.