San Francisco-based artist/producer Jacob Montague has announced a new project called Tsutro, and will be releasing a self-titled debut LP February 10, 2017. The new Tsutro album—mastered by Dale Becker (Beyonce & Ryan Lewis) and drawing from a diverse collection of sounds including pop, worldbeat, future garage, ambient & downtempo—sounds at first like one band backing a new guest vocalist on each of its 10 songs. But in reality, Montague hasn’t even met most of the singers, let alone recorded with them.
"With most of the tracks," he explains, "I took a phrase or two from an existing song, then built all new music around it."
Despite the collage-like approach, Montague is hesitant to call any of the songs remixes—which makes perfect sense considering Tsutro’s unified arrangements. As much as the album relies on minimalist electronic textures, there’s an unquestionably organic connection between the instrumentation and the carefully curated vocal stems.