Animal Collective's Geologist turns starlight into sound on new album The Sirens
Animal Collective's Geologist — Brian Weitz — will release a new album called The Sirens on 16 October on the Outside Time label. The record is a single composition built from an unconventional source: light collected from stars, the moon and planets through a telescope. A preview track, "The Opening," is available now. (Pitchfork)
The album was recorded at visual artist Kyle Simon's Farrington Observatory in Joshua Tree, California. According to Pitchfork, the setup used a telescope fitted with optical sensors and light-sensitive detectors called photodiodes. These collect light from celestial bodies and convert it into an electrical signal via an analog amplifier. That signal is then sent to Geologist's modular synthesizer rig — a system of interchangeable electronic modules used to generate and shape sound — as control voltage, a current that modulates pitch, filter and rhythm.
In plain terms, the brightness and movement of objects in the sky are translated directly into musical parameters. The stars and the moon are not a theme or an inspiration; they are the input, the way a guitar string is the input for a guitarist.
The project has roots in an event Geologist announced on Instagram, describing it as an "astroseismological sensory experience" at the Integratron, a sound-bath venue near Joshua Tree. An Instagram post from Farrington Press also referenced the return of The Sirens event on 17 October — the night of the full Hunter's Moon — after a seven-year hiatus, with Simon operating the telescope. Those undated posts establish the live-performance origin of what became the album.
The Sirens is Geologist's third album of 2026. He released the solo album Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights? in January and collaborated with bandmate Avey Tare on Croz Boyce in May. (Pitchfork)
Geologist and Avey Tare will begin a tour next month, opening 8 September in Asheville, North Carolina. (Pitchfork)
For listeners, the appeal of The Sirens is as much in its method as its sound. The record exists because someone pointed a telescope at the sky, wired the light to a synthesizer, and pressed record.
