Back in 2018, the Chicago-based musician Gia Margaret made her way onto our Best New Bands list thanks to her incredible debut album There’s Always Glimmer. She returned two years later with the hushed instrumental album Mia Gargaret, recorded after an illness that caused her to be unable to sing for half a year. She’s popped up a couple times since then, including on the great single “Solid Heart,” and today she’s announcing her next album, Romantic Piano, the first at her new label home of Jagjaguwar.

Though there’s one song with words on the standard edition of Romantic Piano (no spoilers), it’s primarily another instrumental affair, letting Margaret flex those understated compositional muscles. Those are on display in the album’s lead single and opening track “Hinoki Wood,” a sparse but lovely one where you can hear Margaret pressing down on those keys.

“Hinoki Wood’ feels like it was made with colors I haven’t used. (And I happened to be burning Hinoki incense when I recorded it.),” she said in a statement. “Hinoki aroma is known to reduce stress, tiredness and stimulate the brain. In a way, I wanted these songs to do the same for myself/for the person listening. I wanted to make music that was useful.”

Watch a video for “Hinoki Wood” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Hinoki Wood”
02 “Ways Of Seeing”
03 “Cicadas”
04 “Juno”
05 “A Stretch”
06 “City Song”
07 “Sitting At The Piano”
08 “Guitar Piece”
09 “La langue de l’amitié” (Feat. David Bazan)
10 “2017”
11 “April To April”
12 “Cinnamon”
13″ A Hidden Track” (vinyl only)

Romantic Piano is out 5/26 via Jagjaguwar.