Nicolas Jaar’s deluxe edition of ‘Sirens’ is here, complete with three new tracks

by: Grace Fleisher Dec 10, 2017

When Chilean-American experimentalist Nicolas Jaar released Sirens last year, Dancing Astronaut regarded it as an enactment of “magical realism.” In a more present act of magic proportions, Jaar has returned to his seminal personal-political work with the release of a deluxe edition. He’s added three new tracks recorded during the album’s sessions that did not make it to the final version.

“A Coin in Nine Hands,” “Wildflowers,” and “America! I’m For The Birds” each see the experimental artist work outside of his typical M.O.

“A Coin in Nine Hands,” which Jaar originally left off the record because it “scared him” is the most jarring of the artist’s experimental ventures. It has an almost disassociated personality to it. In what seems to be driven by a simple bassline, “A Coin in Nine Hands” transforms into an unlikely tumultuous tale. The searing noise of a synth is met with Jaar almost-rapping lyrics, only to open into an atmospheric magnum opus halfway through.

If “A Coin in Nine Hands” scared off Jaar, it’s no small wonder numbers like “Wildflowers” or “America! I’m For The Birds” were accompaniments. Both are significantly more subdued tunes. “Wildflowers,” while it was previously released as an album bonus track, dabbles in a newfound R&B approach for the artist. At times it trails off like Jaar’s disappeared into a sonic void, only to return again with a roading vengeance.

Nicolas Jaar’s deluxe edition of Sirens arrives in the recent news that the artist is working on an ambient album, and given the expanse styles presented in the latest offering, that’s a release that can’t come sooner.