Patron saint of anonymous Asian bedroom shoegazers Parannoul sort-of-surprise-released his new album Sky Hundred this past Saturday. I say “sort-of” because he’d hinted at it via his socials this past week, showing screen shots of tracklistings, and he’d released a new single from it this past May; sure, it could have been a one-off, but it was not.

Of the new record, Parannoul says:

Time passes no matter you’re wandering or not. The people who seemed to always be here together are leaving, and the feelings I felt when I made my 2021 began to disappear. The more I hid the more I became exposed. I came out, but the pressure I made myself was abandoning me. I didn’t want to see myself getting ugly in each memory, and I finally understood the real fear of nostalgia based on absence.

The sky is watching hundreds of me, and no one has answered in front of me what makes the difference between them and me. What will happen to those who are left behind? If the end of magic is something that everyone experiences, is there any meaning in falling? Hundred skies have shone brighter than me, and I think I’ve grown too preciously to accept the truth and disappearance.

I dedicate this album to those who still listen to my songs, to my family, to those who have left, and to hundreds of me.

Parannoul / Sky Hundred @ Bandcamp

Available only on Bandcamp right now, it will be on streaming services tomorrow (Wednesday, August 8), and perhaps/probably physical formats down the road. Initial listens reveal it’s still very much in the vein of his name-making previous records, 2021’s To See The Next Part Of The Dream and 2023’s After The Magic – that is to say, yearning vocals (still all in Korean, if you were wondering) and twinkling keyboards dancing overtop and buried underneath walls of crashing drums and guitars. Give the kids what they want, right?