Release date: June 12^th

Birdsong shares much the same sonic DNA as Ghostking is Dead's early 2020 EP Fever Dreaming, mixing notes from indie rock and hip-hop to create a warm, textured and melodic track, where an unplaceable sample collides with shimmering guitar, complex hip-hop drums, carefully-composed synths and cosy bass. Yet this track is first and foremost a summer banger, sonically evoking deep, hazey heat, saturated blue skies, windows down and radio on. Calling from deep isolation towards brighter days right ahead.

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This year has been hitting different. For Matthew Xavier Corrigan, a series of planned gigs to promote his long-awaited 5-track project Fever Dreaming vanished overnight, and a summer's touring on stage with Alex Gough soon followed. With all the time in the world, he went back to writing music and perfecting his technique.

The first fruit of that labour was Established Form, a manic set of experimentations outside his usual Ghostking is Dead wheelhouse and his first release under his given name in quite some time. It came with a bright, chaotic video, filmed alone and pieced together with director Jordan Gough online.

Birdsong fuses these ends into a saturated ode to emerging from isolation into hope, in blinding shades.

It comes with a home photoshoot accompanied by just his camera and mirror, with some additional visual components contributed by the same team of Bartek Gruba and Neil O'Sullivan-Greene that created the stark world of Fever Dreaming.

The plan for Ghostking is Dead in 2020 was always to release more work and explore new sonic frontiers, but the last few months have given Corrigan much more time to create.