Sylvan Esso have announced their first album in four years. Ow ∞ arrives September 11th via Psychic Hotline — the first Sylvan Esso record released entirely on the duo’s own label.
It comes with a second single, Concrete Glen, which recounts a dizzy night out turned hypnotic and surreal and weaves in a sample of Sigur Rós’s Svefn-g-englar — a band, Amelia Meath notes, that soundtracked much of her teenage makeouts. It follows earlier single Hot Slob.
Meath has featured here before through her other work: KLOF shared her band Mountain Man‘s Play It Right in 2021 and premiered the video for The A’s’ He Needs Me, her yodelling duo with Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, also on Psychic Hotline.
Made at Meath and Nick Sanborn’s Chapel Hill studio, Betty’s, Ow ∞ was created, reimagined and revisited nearly every day since 2022 — the longest the pair have ever spent on a record. Its twelve tracks were built with the largest community of musicians Sylvan Esso have worked with on an album: six drummers in total, alongside Glenn Kotche (Wilco), Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes), BJ Burton, Daniel Aged and Matt Douglas, adding guitar, bass, keys, vibraphone, woodwinds, organ and electronics. Most of the vocals are Meath’s first takes.
The duo describe the album as a trust fall into our dystopian present, past and future — embracing the pain of cities under water or on fire and piecing oneself back together from memories, ephemera and Y2K-era burned CDs. Meath puts it more plainly:
“Living hurts forever, and then it stops. But also it’s a little silly. And that’s how I feel. If you’re going to keep participating in the world, and in your life, you have to commit to being hurt. And if you aren’t putting yourself in the way of potential hurt, you miss out on a lot of potential opportunities. So in some ways it’s like a rallying cry, saying ‘I’m gonna get hurt forever, and that’s okay.'”
Ahead of release, fans can hear Ow ∞ in full at listening events around the world on September 3rd, including London (Cafe 1001), Dublin and Berlin. Sylvan Esso also play UK in-stores at Brighton’s Resident (September 20th) and London’s Rough Trade (September 21st), before a North American tour and the return of their Good Moon festival in Durham, NC, from October 8th–10th.
Ow ∞ (September 11th, 2026) Psychic Hotline
Pre-Order: https://ffm.to/owinfinity
Ow ∞ Listening Events | 3rd September 2026
CDMX – 99 Recs
Taiwan – Chao Bar Record Store
Tokyo – TBD
Dublin – The Big Romance
London – Cafe 1001
Berlin – Unkompress
San Diego – Part Time Lover
Los Angeles – ISC HQ
New York – Mr. Melo
Chicago – Parachute
Philadelphia – Percy Sound Lounge
Denver – ESP hi-fi
Portland – Favorite Neighbors
Austin – Equipment Room
Minneapolis – Small Hours
Dallas – Shyboy hi-fi
Omaha – Oto Hi-Fi Lounge
+ More to be announced
Sylvan Esso tour dates
Jul 31 – Burlington, VT – Burlington Waterfront Park
Sep 12 – Abiquiu, NM – Blossoms & Bones
Sept 20 – Brighton, UK – Resident Music (In-Store Performance)
Sept 21 – London, UK – Rough Trade (In-Store Performance)
Oct 1 – Atlanta, GA – The Eastern
Oct 2-3 – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel
Oct 5-6 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Oct 8-10 – Durham, NC – Good Moon
Oct 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Franklin Music Hall
Oct 14 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
Oct 15 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
Oct 16 – Portland, ME – State Theatre
Oct 17 – Boston, MA – Citizens House of Blues
Oct 19 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY
Oct 21 – Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theater
Oct 22 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed Indoors
Oct 23-24 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
Oct 31-Nov 1 – Kakegawa, JP – Festival de Frue
Feb 19 – Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre
Feb 20 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
Feb 22-23 – Portland, OR – McMenamins Crystal Ballroom
Feb 25 – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
Feb 26 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
Feb 27 – Santa Ana, CA – Observatory
Mar 1 – Del Mar, CA – The Sound
Mar 2 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
Mar 4 – Salt Lake City, UT – Rockwell at the Complex
Mar 5-6 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
Mar 8 – Austin, TX – ACL Live at The Moody Theater
Mar 9 – Dallas, TX – House of Blues
Mar 11 – New Orleans, LA – Tipitina’s
Mar 12 – Birmingham, AL – Iron City
Mar 13 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl
*Newly announced dates in BOLD