Lost Futures

Lost Futures is a studio album by American guitarists Marisa Anderson and William Tyler, released August 27, 2021, via Thrill Jockey. Lost Futures was recorded by producer Tucker Martine at his Portland, Oregon recording studio Flora Recording & Playback over a five day session in early September 2020. Background The pair first decided to make an album together after performing at a David Berman tribute concert in Portland in January 2020. In describing their meeting, Anderson said, "There was an obvious and immediate affinity musically and personally, which led to the feeling that we should try and do something together." The album is inspired by, and named in reference to, Jacques Derrida's philosophical concept hauntology, and particularly Mark Fisher's writing on the subject in his work Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures. Tyler had been gifted a copy of Fisher's book by his manager Ben Swank. In an interview, Tyler admitted he hadn't read the book at the time they made the album, and Anderson wasn't familiar with Fisher, but they agreed that they both liked the phrase for their album title and were inspired by their interpretation of it. Tyler said that, having read the book subsequently, he found Fisher to be "not a very hopeful person in his writing", and that the pair "wanted to re-contextualize something about the concept of lost futures. There's an opening there rather than a closed door." The album was preceded by three singles: the title track released March 18, 2021, "Hurricane Light" released June 4, and "At the Edge of the World" released August 24.