Following his first solo album as EOB in 2020, Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien retreated from the spotlight, grappling with a period of intense depression. As he struggled to navigate emotional trauma and life’s turbulence, he found a spiritual guide in the Kentucky-based novelist and poet Wendell Berry, using his phrase “To know the dark, go dark” as a compass for what would become a long journey toward faith and recovery.

Gradually, O’Brien rediscovered a sense of peace in nature, his surroundings, and himself. This music is the result of that journey. He emerges from the darkness with a body of work that feels as healing and spiritual for the listener as the process that shaped it.

With support from key collaborators including Adele producer Paul Epworth, composer Tõnu Kõrvits and flutist Shabaka Hutchings, O’Brien has crafted something truly special, and quietly beautiful. Four years in the making, the first single, “Blue Morpho,” carries the promise of a new dawn with its welcoming sound of birdsong, lush string arrangements (performed by the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra) and soft touches of psychedelic delight.

Ed O’Brien found light in the darkness — inner peace and an appreciation for the beauty of the world around him. This is the personal soundtrack to that spiritual odyssey, but it speaks to us all.