Though he’s best known for the records he released as Dirty Beaches—which conjured the distorted daydreams of Suicide and the eternally lonesome croon of Roy Orbison—Alex Zhang Hungtai retired that moniker in 2014. Since then, Zhang has appeared on the Twin Peaks revival (to play the Roadhouse, naturally) and radically shifted his focus toward the experimental, abandoning retro rock ’n’ roll entirely in favor of free jazz and expansive ambient soundscapes. Zhang’s droning, orchestral 2018 album Divine Weight builds off of his “failed” saxophone recordings to explore “the uncharted labyrinth of the personal subconscious.”

by Ciara Dolan