SUUNS get reflective and reinventive on their new album The Witness

Today Montreal experimental art rock band SUUNS dropped their fifth album The Witness via Secret City Records, introducing a fresh, offbeat sound and poetic insight into the state of the world. Self-recorded and self-produced throughout 2020, The Witness finds the band reinventing their sonic sphere and and exploring themes that reflect the interesting times we’ve all been living through.

“There’s something interesting about the idea of a collective witness, being a witness to the time we’re living in now, and the connectedness of what we all have in common,” said singer Ben Shemie in a press release. “But also, literally: bearing witness to all sorts of things and how that desensitizes you. There’s a recurring line that comes back on the record: ‘I know that you’ve seen it too.’ A song like ‘Clarity’ is also about pulling the veil off and seeing things for what they really are. It kind of comes down to being true to yourself and acknowledging what is and isn’t real.”

Following up their video for “Witness Protection,” an unsettling depiction of pandemic solitude, SUUNS also released a new video this week. It’s a relatively stark but no less disturbing and timely reflection on world events.

SUUNS perform with opening act Dishwasher at the Rialto Theatre (5723 Parc) as part of POP Montreal on Thursday, Sept. 25, 9:30 p.m., $20. For more about SUUNS and their new album The Witness, please visit their website.

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