Album by Go By Ocean

6 tracks |22:00 run time

Releasing 06/21/2024

Available on: Digital Download, Streaming

New EP intended as a companion piece to 2023 album Can I Communicate With the Unknown? in conjunction with the album’s release on vinyl.

Can I Communicate With the Unknown? - that was the question Go By Ocean frontman Ryan McCaffrey posed in the title of his 2023 album. One year later we find ourselves graced with the new EP Communications With the Unknown, a companion piece which reimagines the album through outtakes, remixes, and acoustic versions. 

Communications With the Unknown brings the offering full circle, as the original inspiration behind the album was to capture stripped down versions of McCaffrey’s songs with just vocals, acoustic guitar, and keys. This was all before McCaffrey built-out Sun Machine Recording and went to town bringing the album to life with a colorful cast of characters pulled from the West Coast improvised music scene, ultimately making an album that recalled CSNY, The Beach Boys, and The Byrds.

The EP finds McCaffrey working with the same team of producers as the 2023 album - David Glasebrook (Sugar Candy Mountain, Sandy’s, Iain Mann) and Tim Bluhm (The Mother Hips). Three of the songs feature just McCaffrey and his acoustic guitar with minimal overdubs, while the other tracks include contributions from members of The Mother Hips, Sugar Candy Mountain, Billy &the Kids, and AOL. Notably,  “Ascending Ghosts (instrumental remix)” features contributions from old friend and kindred spirit Michael Nau, who lends his shambolic tangle of modular synths to the song’s melodies.

If Can I Communicate With the Unknown? was a question posed to the universe as McCaffrey wrestled with themes of addiction and existentialism, then Communications From the Unknown is a response from the depths, a fuzzy radio signal from the other side, a transmission from a place where one can find peace and freedom in a tumultuous world of chaos and doubt - a welcome message in these times.