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Jose Gonzalez Returns With Junip: Listen to Lush Kraut-Folk Song ‘Line of Fire’

Junip Line of Fire New Album Preview Jose Gonzales

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Junip, the kraut-folk trio helmed by José González. Their 2010 LP debut Fields pushed that softspoken Swede out into the limelight and made for results both unnatural and enticing. While initially assumed to be a side project, Junip is returning with a self-titled second album on April 23, and González has been relatively quiet in the interim (then again, that’s kind of the dude’s whole M.O.).

Our first taste of Junip is “Line of Fire,” a lushly produced and pumped-up jangler that doesn’t so much reinvent the band as reaffirm their warm, emotive mastery of studio songcraft. These three men are able to sound like an entire orchestra and convincingly so. According to the album announcement, they recorded the new one under the same circumstances as the old one: in their Gothenberg studio with assistance from producer Don Alsterberg [the (International) Noise Conspiracy, the Soundtrack of Our Lives, Graveyard]. Said González: “We’re somewhere between a German jazz band and an African pop band.” Though he probably meant that as a statement about the sound of Junip, we’re not ruling out the possibility that he was physically standing between the Weintraub Syncopators and King Sunny Adé’s posse at the time.

Stream and download Junip’s “Line of Fire” here:

And check out a quick trailer for Junip here: