Yasmin Williams Announces New Album Acadia, Shares New Song: Listen

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Yasmin Williams has announced her new album. Acadia, which arrives on October 4th via Nonesuch – marking Williams' label debut. Today, Williams unveils the single “Virga,” which features guest vocals from indie-folk outfit Darlingside. Listen below and scroll down for the album art and tracklist.

Acadia consists of nine, largely instrumental songs, all written and produced by Williams. He also plays a number of instruments on the record: guitar, banjo, calabash drum, kora, and even tap shoes. Williams enlisted contributions from saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, singer Aoife O'Donovan, rhythm bones player Dom Flemons and others.

“Acadia it has many meanings,” Williams noted in a press release. She continued:

Place of rural peace and pastoral poetry (Italian), refuge or idyllic place, (Greek and Italian), fertile land (Mi'kmaq), place of plenty (French). All of this relates to the ethos of this album. The songs are seeds that I planted, and the seeds grew into the album, Acadia: a place of peace, a place where creativity can flourish, a place where everyone can fit in and work together effectively, a place where the fruits of my own work in music can fully blossom without judgment or prejudice. One of my visions for this record was to expand the possibilities of current popular music to encourage collaboration across genres. The blurring of these somewhat arbitrary lines has been a natural tendency for me since I began writing music at the age of twelve and Acadia it's a full circle moment.

Of lead single 'Virga', Williams added: 'A virga is a meteorological phenomenon where streaks of rain hang from a cloud and evaporate before reaching the ground. I connected this feeling to how I feel about being an artist in an industry that doesn't always seem to value artistry and reflection. I finally realized that I had to learn how to thrive “in virga”, so to speak. To learn to be okay with feeling slightly suspended in time, with my hopes and dreams dangling in an environment I have no control over, never having my feet fully on the ground.”

Acadia follows Yasmin Williams' clear play for 2021 Urban Driftwood. Read more about her in “25 Young and Up-and-coming Artists Shaping the Future of Music in 2023.”