Damon & Naomi – “Sailing By”

Damon & Naomi – “Sailing By”

Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, the indie-rock power couple and former Galaxie 500 members who also make music together as the duo Damon & Naomi, have announced a new album. They recorded the upcoming A Sky Record with guitarist Michio Kurihara, and today they’re sharing “Sailing By,” a tribute to the BBC’s Shipping Forecast. As Krukowski explains:

“Sailing By” is also the title of a light classical waltz that’s played every night shortly before the 1AM end of the broadcast day on BBC Radio Four, followed by the “Shipping Forecast” (and then “God Save The Queen”!). The Shipping Forecast is simply the weather forecast for the sea around the UK. But it’s also a mesmerizing list of place names (“Viking” and “Tiree” are examples) and slightly coded information about wind direction, etc. — it has its own language. But for some reason, Naomi and I found ourselves listening to it almost every night during lockdown… It comes on just as we’re usually cooking dinner, which is how we stumbled on it… and then this marker became important to us, even though (or because?) it’s a report about conditions for places we couldn’t possibly visit…

“Sailing By” is a gorgeous, meditative sigh of a song, and you can listen to it below.

A Sky Record is out 8/6. Pre-order it here.

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