Today, the Chicago-raised, Los Angeles-based guitarist, composer, and producer Gregory Uhlmann (SML, Perfume Genius, Hand Habits, Anna Butterss) announces Extra Stars, a new album out March 6 that serves as his solo debut for International Anthem.

Comprising fourteen miniature infinities of inventive guitar textures, bewitching harmonic depth, and metamorphic rhythmic flickers, Extra Stars is a vividly escapist, panoramic menagerie of sound — yet another distinctive entry from an artist who has quickly established himself as an essential presence in some of the most progressive instrumental recordings of our time.

Accompanying the album announcement is lead single “Lucia,” which features International Anthem label-mate Alabaster DePlume. Uhlmann builds a chiming guitar pulse atop a field recording of crashing waves against California’s Cabrillo Highway coastline, softening the clangor with warmly modulated beds of mellotron and electric organ. DePlume’s signature fluttering tone completes the daydream fantasia.

Says Uhlmann: “This song began with a field recording of the waves in Big Sur. Named after the Lucia Lodge, my partner and I stayed there for a couple nights and found the sound of the waves both calming and a little unnerving. There’s an intensity to being on a point with waves crashing down around you. I wrote the piece years ago and always had Gus (Alabaster DePlume) in mind to play, but finally worked up the courage to ask him recently. What he added was perfect and beyond what I could’ve hoped for.”

Listen to “Lucia” and preorder Extra Stars here.

Uhlmann also announces several live performances, including a Chicago show opening for Perfume Genius this week, plus further album release events in Chicago, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles. On February 15th, Living Earth will host a stargazing and advance listening party for Extra Stars outdoors at Angel’s Point in Elysian Park, Los Angeles. Full info and links for all dates below.

Following a long run of supporting work with artists like Perfume Genius, Tasha, and Hand Habits, alongside an eponymous recorded output largely focused on his more singer-songwriter oriented music, Uhlmann has spent the better part of the last couple years trotting out album after album of groundbreaking instrumental modern music: the sparse melodies and hushed ambient soundscapes of Small Day; his much-lauded duo outing Doubles with Meg Duffy; his perhaps lesser-known but no-less-brilliant duo record Water Map with Dustin Wong; the lush chamber-jazz interplay of his trio recording with saxophonist Josh Johnson and bassist Sam Wilkes; and the two genre-breaking albums he released as a co-leader of synth-laced trance-jazz quintet SML (2024’s Small Medium Large and 2025’s How You Been).

Extra Stars encompasses all he’s learned through all the above. For a record that seldom incorporates percussion instruments, the music is distinctly rhythm-forward, while Uhlmann also leans heavily into swaths of pastoral beauty. Extra care was clearly poured into the kind of harmonic depth that’s often missing from vibe-only “ambient” music, making for a delightfully refreshing take on the electronic, processing-heavy quiet sound.

The compositions and production techniques here reflect Uhlmann’s musicality perfectly, surely the result of him being as much a seasoned practitioner as he is an avid listener. If there is a middle ground between Cluster & Eno, Terry Riley’s Shri Camel, and Yo La Tengo’s There’s a Riot Going On, it’s somewhere nearby. Lofty comparisons aside, Extra Stars seems to look beyond reference or imitation. Even the album’s title indicates as much — inspired by a trip to California’s Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, where the reality of the night sky’s starry expanse stretches beyond the boundaries of belief.

LIVE DATES
1/22 – Lincoln Hall (opening for Perfume Genius) – Chicago, IL – tickets
2/15 – Angel’s Point in Elysian Park (listening event) – Los Angeles, CA – more info
4/16 – Zebulon (album release show) – Los Angeles, CA – tickets
4/22 – Public Records (album release show) – Brooklyn, NY – tickets