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The upcoming tour will commence on the 2^nd of December at York Minster and will be followed by a further four intimate dates in Norwich, Newcastle, Glasgow and Coventry. Albarn wrote on Instagram regarding the tour: “Limited ticket bundles on sale tomorrow for a special set of short, intimate piano performances, in partnership with local record stores.”

Regarding his upcoming album, Albarn has shared five tracks thus far, including “Particles”, “Royal Morning Blue”, “Polaris”, the title track and most recently “The Tower of Montevideo”. Around the time that he signed to Transgressive Records, Albarn spoke with NME and shared a generous insight into his writing process for the album, talking at length about the lyrical content and the musical arrangements. You can read the full interview here.

Albarn spoke of the grim atmosphere that permeated the world throughout the height of the COVID-19 pandemic; “I took some of these real-time, extreme elemental experiences and then tried to develop them into, as you say, more formal pop songs with that as my source. I wanted to see where that would take me. Sometimes it took me down to Uruguay and Montevideo. Other times I went to Iran, Iceland or Devon. With travel being curtailed, it was kind of nice to be able to make a record that strangely put me in those places for a moment or two.”

As previously stated, Albarn’s new album will be released on November 12^th and can be pre-ordered here. There are also numerous physical versions available for pre-order as well, including a black vinyl LP, CD and cassette tape.

The official dates for Albarn’s forthcoming solo tour are listed down below. Tickets can be purchased here (It should be noted that according to Albarn, York and Glasgow are officially sold out).

02/12/2021- York Minster- York
04/12- UEA- Norwich
05/12- The Boiler Shop- Newcastle
06/12- St. Luke’s- Glasgow
07/12- Empire- Coventry

The tracklist for The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows is listed below.

1).“The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows”
2). “The Cormorant”
3). “Royal Morning Blue”
4). “Combustion”
5). “Daft Wader”
6). “Darkness To Light”
7). “Esja”
8). “The Tower Of Montevideo”
9). “Giraffe Trumpet Sea”
10). “Polaris”
11). “Particles”