Long-gone but still-beloved Vancouver indie pop institution P:ano returned last year with the cover tune "Hollow Stars." Now, the four-piece of Nicholas Krgovich, Larissa Loyva (Kellarissa), Julia Chirka and Justin Kellam have announced their first album together in 19 years: they will self-release ba ba ba on September 17, and the single "a bit of coquitlam" is out now.
This will be the follow-up to P:ano's 2005 releases Brigadoon and Ghost Pirates Without Heads. The reformed four-piece recorded the tracks at Anacortes, WA's the Unknown last November with Nich Wilbur, and they finished overdubs at the field house of a small park back home in Vancouver. The 10 songs were mixed in Toronto by Krgovich's collaborator Joseph Shabason. The album features various guests who also performed on P:ano's early work.
According to a press release, ba ba ba is an homage to the formative music of the members' early days, including Yo La Tengo, Low, Belle and Sebastian, the Magnetic Fields or Stereolab. Two of the song titles — "a bit of coquitlam" and "poco trail" — directly namedrop the Vancouver suburb where Krgovich and Loyva met in high school.
Below, hear "a bit of coquitlam," which retains some of the theatrical opulence of the group's early work while also settling into a more meditative, patient sense of nostalgia. The album's tracklist is below that.
The group will release ba ba ba with a hometown show at the Cultch in Vancouver on September 14. The album will come out digitally and on vinyl on September 17. That's a Tuesday, since albums used to be released on Tuesdays the last time P:ano put out an album.
ba ba ba:
1. a bit of coquitlam
2. days swing
3. mikey's new house
4. song
5. old shoe
6. mariko
7. spani
8. leaving the salon
9. what was i thinking
10. poco trail