A lot has happened since Saint Petersburg’s Blankenberge released their 2021 album Everything – Russia invaded Ukraine, the band relocated to somewhere/anywhere else (their last publicly announced whereabouts was Serbia), and I fell in love with their music. Not necessarily in that order.

But given the extenuating circumstances, it’s understandable that it took the band some time to return to making music. They have, however, and today brings the first sample of their fourth record, which will be out sometime next year; no further details beyond that, aside from it coming out on Automatic Music.

Despite the name, “New Rules” doesn’t rewrite the band’s playbook and there’s still plenty of airy vocals and billowing soundscapes, though if you’re looking for something new, it sounds like someone got themselves a pitch-shifter pedal?