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Scottish composer and producer Andrew Wasylyk has today announced his new album, Irreparable Parables, out on Friday 6th March 2026 via Clay Pipe Music & The state51 Conspiracy. Wasylyk has also shared a new single, The Cold Collar, a satirical tale of an unexpected visitor, featuring Welsh songwriter and frontman of pioneering group Super Furry Animals, Gruff Rhys. With hypnotic percussion, plucked double bass, plaintive upright piano chords, string section and brass harmonies, Wasylyk’s broad strokes in texture and arranging are deployed in cinematic noir around Rhys’ masterful storytelling and hushed delivery.
Speaking about The Cold Collar, Andrew says:
“Super Furry Animals’ records have held a place dear to my heart for a long time. From investigations in experimental pop, to Welsh language albums, I’ve found Gruff’s artistic adventures and creative output inspiring ever since. In ’The Cold Collar’ I enjoy how his hushed, almost claustrophobic, wordplay lands among the cinematic feel of the arrangement, and the plot’s unexpected turn of events. Releasing music about an unannounced visitor in the season of first-footing is also mildly amusing serendipity!“
For his new album, Wasylyk felt a strong desire to write a set of songs featuring an element hitherto rare in his work: the human voice. Equally strong was the conviction that he did not want to sing them himself. The multi-instrumentalist and composer set about assembling a group of guest singers, sending out the songs to wherever they were in the world. The vocals were recorded remotely and then, like migrating birds, winged their way back to Scotland. The result is an album of great beauty which, perhaps preeminently in Wasylyk’s work, expresses the vulnerability and resilience of the human spirit.
Six singers appear on the record, represented by six songbirds illustrated on the sleeve by Clay Pipe Music’s Frances Castle. The cuckoo is a nod to Belle and Sebastian’s 2004 single ‘I’m A Cuckoo’, that band’s Stuart Murdoch being the first voice you hear on the new album. When the vocal for Private Symphony #2 arrived, says Wasylyk, “it was everything that I was looking for and more. But this is Stuart Murdoch. Of course he’s going to make something incredibly beautiful and thoughtful.”
The song lyrics were, for the most part, written by the singers. The music is Wasylyk’s creation. He navigates a sound world that lies somewhere beyond the borders of classical and jazz, ambient and abstract. It is difficult to describe, but easy to understand, which is to say to feel. That is the way Wasylyk’s work is experienced: as a feeling.
The musical palette of Irreparable Parables includes brass and woodwind, a six-piece string section, guitar, bass, drums, vibraphone, Mellotron, Fender Rhodes, tape loops, synthesisers and percussion. The strings were arranged by the cellist Pete Harvey, a long-term collaborator. Among the other guest vocalists are Saya Ueno from Japan’s Tenniscoats, Peter Brewis from Field Music, Molly Linen, and Kathryn Joseph, while Wasylyk himself takes the lead vocal on the album’s title track. Speaking about his collaborators on the album, Wasylyk says: “These humans are incredible at what they do. I’m deeply grateful and feel so lucky. It blows my mind.”
Irreparable Parables is available to pre-order digitally from today here and physically from 16th January here. Andrew will be hosting a Bandcamp listening party for the album on 14th January at 8pm UK time, offering fans the chance to listen to the album early.
Irreparable Parables Tracklisting
1. Private Symphony (Feat. Stuart Murdoch)
2. The Cold Collar (Feat. Gruff Rhys)
3. Love Is A Life That Lasts Forever (Feat. Molly Linen)
4. First Moonbeams Of Adulthood
5. Road To The Amber Room
6. Hachi No Su (Feat. Saya from Tenniscoats)
7. In Portmanteau (Feat. Field Music)
8. Irreparable Parables
9. Spectators In The Absence Of God (Feat. Kathryn Joseph)
10. Soul Enters The Ocean Sun Climbs Out The Sea
