Last year I got my mind expanded by the instrumental rock of Jonathan Haskell, who was making music as Firs. Now Haskell has combined that moniker with his side project as Seven Saturdays, still bending ears with intricate compositions that unfold like time-lapse photographs of flowers blooming. Seven Saturdays’ new album-length EP (five songs, almost 30 minutes) features some of the same players as his Firs material — Morgan Kibby (M83), Mike Garson (David Bowie/Smashing Pumpkins), Eric Heywood (the Pretenders) and Lester Nuby (Verbena) — as well as vocalists Julie Morin and Alastair Milne and production assists from Daniel Farris (St. Vincent). It’s headphones music that feels, at once, like an escape and an arrival. Or spend 8 minutes with “A Beautiful Day” and decide which.
||| Download: “A Beautiful Day”
