Nina Nastasia has returned from a 12-year hiatus with the announcement of a new album called Riderless Horse. It’s set to arrive on July 22 via Temporary Residence, with a vinyl release to follow on November 4. The LP was produced alongside Steve Albini. Today, Nastasia has shared the album’s lead single, ‘Just Stay in Bed’. Check it out below and scroll down for the record’s cover art (by Elizabeth Neel) and tracklist.
In a press release, Nastasia described Riderless Horse as “my first solo record,” adding that it is her first record not produced by her former partner, Kennan Gudjonsson, who passed away in 2020. Her statement continues:
I haven’t made an album since 2010. I decided to stop pursuing music several years
after my sixth record, Outlaster, because of unhappiness, overwhelming chaos,
mental illness, and my tragically dysfunctional relationship with Kennan. Creating
music had always been a positive outlet during difficult times, but eventually it
became a source of absolute misery.
Kennan, a cat, and I lived in a studio apartment in NYC for 25 years, finding ways to
survive while making records and going on tours. Our apartment was the place where
people would come stay, eat, drink, play music, and use our tub. It was quite a home
we had created, but it was decaying steadily from the moment we moved in, and in
the end, it was as if black mold was growing beneath the surface, undetected, and
the two of us were dying and getting too weak to ever leave. We loved each other.
We were each other’s family, but there was ongoing abuse, control and manipulation.
We hid. We didn’t want anyone to see how ugly things could get, so we increasingly
isolated from our friends and family. We were lost.
On January 26, 2020, I made the decision to separate and live apart, and on January
27, Kennan died by suicide. What a thing, suicide. I can only feel sadness and guilt
about it. Maybe I’ll have other reactions to it later on.
Riderless Horse documents the grief, but it also marks moments of empowerment
and a real happiness in discovering my own capability. Steve Albini produced this
record with me, and Greg Norman assisted. The three of us are old friends, and we
did a field recording in a guesthouse built like a lighthouse that two very dear friends
of mine have in Esopus, NY. It was exactly the right environment to work on this
record. We all had meals together, cried, laughed, and told stories. It was perfect. It
made me realize how much I love writing, playing and recording music.
Terrible things happen. These were some terrible things. So, what to do – learn
something valuable, connect with people, move the fuck out of that apartment,
remember the humor, find the humor, tell the truth, and make a record. I made a
record.
Riderless Horse Cover Artwork:
Riderless Horse Tracklist:
1. Cork and Pour
2. Just Stay in Bed
3. You Were So Mad
4. This Is Love
5. Nature
6. Lazy Road
7. Ask Me
8. Blind as Batsies
9. The Two of Us
10. Go Away
11. The Roundabout
12. Trust
13. Afterwards
14. Creek and Chimes
