Australian artist Nick Ward is back with ‘Piano‘, the first taste of his forthcoming sophomore album Year of the Snake, out 13 November. Built around a sample of Glenn Gould’s iconic recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, it’s a suitably ambitious introduction to this next chapter.

‘Piano’ is a song about finding your way back to your creative instincts — rediscovering inspiration, trusting your ideas and taking the wheel of your own life again. Gould’s restless piano gives the track its backbone, with Ward building something much more unruly around it: playful, unpredictable and constantly threatening to veer somewhere unexpected.

That sense of freedom runs through Year of the Snake, which promises a more muscular, experimental and tightly focused version of Ward’s sound, while keeping the chaotic, playful energy that makes his music so distinctive.

‘Year of The Snake feels like the first fully realised Nick Ward record,’ says Ward. ‘My first album was made almost completely in my bedroom, so this was my first time building something from scratch on a larger scale, trying all the things I dreamed about as a teenager like working with session musicians, doing live improvised jams and recording analogue to tape. It feels like a step forward closer to the artist I want to be.’

If ‘Piano’ is anything to go by, that step forward sounds like it’s going to be a very fun one.

Main Image: Joe Brennan