{"id":22915,"date":"2025-04-15T20:33:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T20:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/22915\/"},"modified":"2025-04-15T20:33:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T20:33:20","slug":"king-gizzard-return-with-phantom-island-and-london-orchestra-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/22915\/","title":{"rendered":"King Gizzard return with Phantom Island and London orchestra show"},"content":{"rendered":"

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have announced their 27th album, Phantom Island, set for release on 13th June via their own (p)doom records imprint. <\/p>\n

Alongside the album comes a sweeping run of UK and European tour dates, including a performance at London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall with the Covent Garden Sinfonia.<\/p>\n

If Flight b741 was the band\u2019s turbo-charged nod to sci-fi serials and cartoonish action, Phantom Island shifts the mood. While the adventurous spirit remains, these new tracks turn inward. \u201cThe songs felt like they needed this other energy and colour, that we needed to splash some different paint on the canvas,\u201d explains frontman Stu Mackenzie.<\/p>\n

Ten of the album\u2019s tracks were written during the same sessions that produced Flight b741, but Mackenzie says these \u201cwere harder to finish\u201d and \u201cneeded a little more time and space and thought.\u201d That space came with the involvement of British conductor and historical keyboardist Chad Kelly, who worked with the band to arrange orchestral parts for the project.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHe brings this wealth of musical awareness to his chameleon-like arrangements,\u201d says Mackenzie. \u201cWe come from such different worlds \u2013 he plays Mozart and Bach and uses the same harpsichords they did, and tunes them the exact same way. But he\u2019s obsessed with microtonal music, too, and all this nerdy stuff like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lead single \u2018Deadstick\u2019 shows the new direction clearly, with complex orchestration elevating the track\u2019s jazz-rock foundation. Its video, directed by Guy Tyzack, leans into chaos: \u201cDeadstick refers to when a plane propeller stops midflight so I decided to have a massive plane made out of cardboard crash land into a beautiful location.\u201d<\/p>\n

The title Phantom Island sets the tone for an album that blends fantasy with existential reflection. \u201cIt\u2019s more introverted,\u201d Mackenzie admits. \u201cWhen I was younger, I was just interested in freaking people out, but as I get older, I\u2019m much more interested in connecting with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"King<\/p>\n

The record is supported by a run of orchestral and rave shows across Europe and the UK this autumn. The Royal Albert Hall concert on 4th November will showcase arrangements with the Covent Garden Sinfonia, while other orchestral dates in Paris, Den Bosch and Gdansk will pair the band with local symphonies. For the more electronically minded, rave shows in venues like Electric Brixton and Berlin\u2019s Columbiahalle will lean into the modular madness of The Silver Cord.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s little danger of the band slowing down. Between a summer residency tour across Lisbon, Barcelona and Athens, and their ongoing experiments in genre-splicing and sonic worldbuilding, Phantom Island looks set to be another restless chapter in the ever-evolving Gizz mythos.<\/p>\n

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