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Music

Listen to Rostam's New Track "Gwan" and Pretend You're in a Whimsical Coming-of-Age Movie

It's the Vampire Weekend songwriter's first new material this year.
Lauren O'Neill
London, GB

Rostam Batmanglij—of Vampire Weekend and Discovery fame—has always had a frankly unfair number of strings to his bow. The songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, producer, and performer officially left Vampire Weekend early last year to pursue solo projects, and though he'll still be collaborating with Ezra Koenig and co., his departure has so far been a fruitful one in terms of his many-pronged solo career.

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So far, new music from Rostam has been sporadic (remember this extremely trippy, sonically kaleidoscopic treat from March last year?) but after an album was teased in late 2016, it seems that things might finally start to get moving, as today he dropped a new track, "Gwan," and accompanying video.

It's a very 'If you like Vampire Weekend, you'll love this!' affair, featuring the sort of classical strings that you kind of automatically associate with the band, accompanied by Rostam's gentle lull of a vocal that puts me in mind of a very clever friend being very kind to me. Offset by a music video that very prominently features Rostam's happy smiling face, it's difficult not to achieve a sense of momentary peace when you're locked into listening and watching. See the clip above, and imagine you're an extra in the imaginary Wes Anderson coming-of-age movie that "Gwan" definitely soundtracks.

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(Image via YouTube)