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In 2015, guitarist Neal Casal was asked to provide music that would be played during intermission of five Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years Of Grateful Dead concerts. Casal recruited keyboardist Adam MacDougall, bassist Dan Horne and drummer Mark Levy to help record the instrumental music and the reaction to th resulting tunes was so strong they decided to continue the project known as Circles Around the Sun. Today, the quartet announced a new step with the upcoming release of Let It Wander, a double album due August 17 via Rhino.

Casal, MacDougall, Horne and Levy laid down the seven instrumentals found on the follow-up to 2015’s Interludes For The Dead in early 2018 at Castaway 7 Studios. “More than anything, what you hear on this album is a band growing into its own sound,” Casal said in a statement about Circles Around The Sun evolving past their original aim of paying homage to the spirit of the Grateful Dead.

Circles Around The Sun recruited Chuck D. of Public Enemy to contribute to the Let It Wander track “One For Chuck.” It turns out Chuck D. had visited Castaway 7 during one of CATS listening sessions. The legendary hip-hop star dug what he heard and obliged when the band asked him to record an intro.

by Scott Berstein