Nocturnal Birding - Orange Blue Merge LP

In 2024, AUTHOR & PUNISHER will celebrate 20 years since its inception. Founding composer, vocalist and mechanical engineer Tristan Shone will embrace the project’s broadest scope to date with Nocturnal Birding.

Alongside the powerful and meaningful messages conveyed through the music, lyrics and artwork, Nocturnal Birding sees Tristan Shone collaborating with a diverse range of artists from around the world in a way that has never been seen before in his career. These outer creative inputs shine throughout the work, from the meticulously designed artwork by French artist Lucile Lejoly (Chat Pile, Roadburn Festival), to the mixing and mastering by Will Putney (Knocked Loose, Heriot, Body Count, Machine Head), to the musical guest appearances from France’s Fange, Indonesia’s Kuntari, and New York City’s Megan Oztrosits of Couch Slut.

Shone has welcomed collaborators in the past, but guitarist Doug Sabolick (Ecstatic Vision, Plaque Marks, A Life Once Lost, etc.) is the first genuine bandmate in AUTHOR & PUNISHER, contributing creatively on guitar and shaping the persona of Nocturnal Birding by complementing Shone with melodies and tonal weight.

Stepping outside of his artistic comfort zone proved to be a fruitful source of inspiration. There is literal birdsong throughout Nocturnal Birding, and transposing these melodies and rhythms to the guitar formed the basis of the material, representing a rare fusion of the natural world and mechanised sounds.