Release

Since releasing his first EP in 2007, Rich Aucoin has made it his life's work to transform our fear into fun, anxiety into ecstasy, panic into pleasure. A mad DayGlo-pop scientist in the tradition of Brian Wilson, Wayne Coyne, and Dan Snaith, Rich is the sort of artist who has no time for half measures, utilizing all the resources and connections at his disposal to ensure his every gesture is a Major Event. Where Rich's past records encouraged group participation, RELEASE forges a psychic connection-a more cerebral experience, but no less communal. More than just inspiring fans to sing along, he's inviting us to feel together. RELEASE strives for the same delirious peaks as Rich's earlier records, but takes more scenic and, at times, more challenging routes to get there. Pieced together over the course of three years, across five cities in 16 studios with 70-plus collaborators and over a hundred instruments, RELEASE presents Rich's most musically elaborate, fully realized vision to date-which is saying a helluva lot, given his maximalist track record.